scholarly journals Music, Magic, and the Mythic: The Dynamics of Visual and Aural Discourse in Souleymane Cissé’s Yeelen

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Alexander Fisher
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Oral Storytelling ◽  
Ethnographic Film ◽  
Spectator Identification

The 1980s saw a wave of African films that aimed to represent, on both local and international screens, a sophisticated pre-colonial Africa, representing ancient myths and traditions while simultaneously debunking notions of the continent as primitive. Toward this aim the films inscribed the conventions of oral performance within their visual styles, denying spectator identification with the protagonists and emphasising the presence of the narrator. However, some critics argued that these films exoticised Africa, while their use of oral performance’s distancing effect echoed the ‘scientific’ distance structured by the ethnographic film, in which African societies were represented as ‘the other’. Souleymane Cissé’s Yeelen exemplifies this tension, transposing into cinematic form oral storytelling techniques in the depiction of a power struggle within the covert cult of the komo, a Bambara initiation society unfamiliar to most non-Bambara viewers. This paper demonstrates how the film negotiates this tension via music, which interpellates the international spectator by eliciting a greater identification with the protagonists than that determined at a visual level, while encoding a verisimilitude to rituals that may otherwise be read as the superstitious practices of ‘the other’. In this way, music and image in Yeelen operate as parallel, though often overlapping, discourses, bridging the gap between the film’s culturally specific narrative and formal components, and its international spectators.

Robot Double

2013 ◽  
pp. 680-702
Author(s):  
Yuji Sone
Keyword(s):  
Performance Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Physical Movement ◽  
Self And Identity ◽  
Japanese Studies ◽  
And Performance

This chapter discusses Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro’s performance experiments with robotic machines (humanoid and android) as a case study for this book’s theme, “the techno-self.” Ishiguro’s robots are highly sophisticated pieces of engineering intended to replicate human physical movement and appearance. In addition to claims relevant to robot engineering, for Ishiguro, these machines are reflexive tools for investigations into questions of human identity. In Ishiguro’s thinking I identify what I call a “reflexive anthropomorphism,” a notion of the self’s relation to the other that is tied equally to Buddhism and Japanese mythology. Using concepts from Japanese studies and theatre and performance studies, this chapter examines one culturally specific way of thinking about concepts of the self and identity through Ishiguro’s discussion of the human-robot relation.

scholarly journals Mulan and Moana: Embedded Coloniality and the Search for Authenticity in Disney Animated Film

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Anjirbag
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Other ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Walt Disney ◽  
Film Representation ◽  
Animated Film ◽  
Literature And Film

As the consciousness of coloniality, diversity, and the necessity of not only token depictions of otherness but accurate representations of diversity in literature and film has grown, there has been a shift in the processes of adaptation and appropriation used by major film production companies and how they approach representing the other. One clear example of this is the comparison of the depiction of diverse, cross-cultural womanhood between Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Mulan (1998) and Moana (2016). This paper will use a cross-period approach to explore the ways in which a global media conglomerate has and has not shifted its approach to appropriation of the multicultural as other and the implications for representational diversity in the context of globalization and a projected global culture. In one case, a cultural historical tale was decontextualized and reframed, while in the other, cultural actors had a degree of input in the film representation. By examining culturally specific criticisms and scenes from each film, I will explore how the legacy of coloniality can still be seen embedded in the framing of each film, despite the studio’s stated intentions towards diversity and multiculturalism.

Community Translation and Oral Performance of Some Praise Psalms within the Zulu Community

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
June F. Dickie
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
The Other ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Basic Training ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Praise Poetry

There is a strong history among the Zulu community of performing praise poetry, and a passion for composing and performing poetry continues among Zulu youth today. On the other hand, the current Zulu Bible is considered by many young people to be irrelevant or difficult to read and understand. With these two factors in mind, I conducted a study in which Zulu youth were invited to participate in basic training, after which they made their own translations of various praise psalms and then performed them before a community audience using song, rap, or spoken poetry. This paper looks at the process and benefits of inviting “ordinary speakers” to participate in the translation process, and of communicating the message through oral performance. The results are encouraging and suggest the methodology could be extended to other genres of biblical text and other language groups.

scholarly journals Pertarungan Kuasa dalam Wacana Islam Nusantara

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Ahmad Khoirul Fata ◽  
Moh. Nor Ichwan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama

This article examines power struggle in the discourse of Islam Nusantara which becomes very popular in contemporary Indonesian Islam. The idea of Islam Nusantara is not different from Islam in general, but with distinctive charactericstics, such as tawâzun, i‘tidâl, and tawassut}. The proponents of this idea claim that their intellectual framework is based on the principle of maslah}ah mursalah, istih}sân, and ‘urf. Using critical discourse analysis, this article attempts to see the other side of Islam Nusantara discourse. This study is based on an assumption that language and discourse are not only an instrument to convey ideas, but also a means to construct social reality. Social activities are always related to and constructed by their social settings. This article argues that the discourse of Islam Nusantara emerges as a part of struggle for influence between mainstream Islamic movements, such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, and new transnational Islamic movements, such as Tarbiyah, Hizbut Tahrir, and Salafis. The use of the term Islam Nusantara is indeed the effort of mainstream Islamic movements to create the image of indigenous Islamic movements, different from the newly imported Islamic movements. However, the discourse of Islam Nusantara seems to be reductionist and monolithic in perceiving diverse realities of Islam in Nusantara.

scholarly journals The Fight for the Power and the Other One in Politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Hasan Jashari
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
The People ◽  
Moral Boundaries ◽  
Social Level

In politics we will always have friends, opponents and outsiders. They constantly appear to us and at that moment when we have won one and as such has lost the support of the electorate. But political struggle goes on with other people who use the loss of one to take his post in the electorate. But even the opposition has its announced and not announced opponents. The purpose of this research is that through the theoretical and empirical elaboration of the topic we will collect data on the political power struggle between the four main political parties in Macedonia. By means of statistical data, previous surveys and surveys of 100 students we will analyze various indicators and will make their interpretation. Today, in our political and social level, we all work against one another. To work against others, strategies must be prepared to carry out self-proclaiming to the people, how to deface the opponent, how to elaborate, reveal discoveries about the shortcomings and weaknesses of the enemy camp. It is summed up in the goals - to have information that the other is corrupt, unable,so that we can attack. But the question is that working against others is it becoming a political philosophy and permanent strategy,is it becoming a business, but also a struggle without any moral boundaries, especially in Macedonia but also in Albania and Kosovo.

The Bullet in the Glass: War, Death, and the Meaning of Penitentiary Experience in Colombia

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Libardo José Ariza ◽  
Manuel Iturralde
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Free World ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
The Way

In this article, we discuss the incidence of narratives on war and death in molding penitentiary experience in Colombia. Based upon the case of la Modelo National Prison in Bogotá, we illustrate the way in which penitentiary discourses are transmitted and reproduced through two rites that initiate newcomers into the local world of confinement. The first, the tale of terror, told by veteran guards, of the cemetery filled with the bodies left by the war between rebel fighters and paramilitary soldiers. The other, the dense description of the bullet holes in the glass shield at the Main Guard Post, which leads to the main cellblocks, which give proof to the guards’ endurance when faced by the violent power struggle that rages inside the penitentiary. At the same time, we show how these discourses on the horror of the war inside the penitentiary make their way from within the confines of prison out into the free world through ex-convicts’ memoirs, press accounts, and judicial documents written by court officials who visit the prison. Drawing on this case study, we argue that to achieve a contextual interpretation of carceral violence, it is indispensable to trace, reconstruct, and comprehend the trajectory of its foundational discourses, thus allowing for the assembly of the pieces that give meaning to penitentiary experience at the local level.

scholarly journals Quelques réflexions sur la traduction littéraire du chinois vers les langues européennes

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Honghua Poizat-Xie
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Similarity ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Confucius Institute ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
The University ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Traduction Litteraire

AbstractThe present paper is the result of a workshop on the translation of Chinese literature that was held between March 2012 and May 2013 at the Confucius Institute at the University of Geneva. It aimed to identify major obstacles in rendering literary Chinese into English, French, Italian, German, and Russian, and to explore the differences and similarities of the problems encountered. Nine works of Chinese literature were selected for studying and examining a number of difficulties in translation: Terms with culturally specific connotations, transposition of certain grammatical structures, treatment of idioms and metaphors, translation of titles. We have found a great similarity of approaches chosen for the various target languages, Russian being an exception. Due to cultural and political influences, this language displays certain similarities to Chinese, especially in vocabulary; but there are additional aspects in which the Russian case differs from the other four languages.

scholarly journals Karen Bixen reads the Olaf Tryggvason saga: Reseption of the saga and narrative strategies in “The Bear and the Kiss”

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-337
Author(s):  
Anastasia Lomagina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The Other ◽  
Semantic Gap ◽  
Reception Theory ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Oral Storytelling ◽  
European Modernism

The article analyses the reception of the Norse sagas in Karen Blixen’s short story “The Bear and the Kiss” written in 1958 with the main focus on the “saga of Olaf Tryggvason”. Drawing on Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory, the article explores the hierarchy of the pre-texts that are traceable in the text of the considered story and suggests a system of markers that are meant to include interaction with the precedent texts. The typology of markers includes the characters’ names, metaphorical use of mythological or historical personas, the identified cited texts or stories, identical attributes (in this particular text — a glove thrown into a person’s face), the characters’ appearance, and similarity or contrast with the storyline of the other unidentified text. The analysis shows that there are two possible effects of the use of references: semantic compression and, conversely, symbolist and Neoplatonic circling around the event, which creates a semantic gap. The reader can either find himself aware of a riddle yet being unable to understand how the events or reactions fit into the plot or assume the role of an investigator creating his own interpretation of the storyline. The examined strategy of circling around the truth in order to indicate an idea or a fact by using metaphors, comparisons, and allusions in combination with Walter Benjamin’s and Edward Forster’s philosophy of oral storytelling allows Blixen’s short stories to fit neatly into the context of European modernism.

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