Postcolonial Criticism and Representations of African Dictatorship
The Aesthetics of Tyranny
Cécile Bishop
Click cover to enlarge | Research Monographs in French Studies 41 Legenda 1 July 2014 • 135pp ISBN: 978-1-909662-01-8 (hardback) • RRP £80, $110, €95 ContemporaryFrenchCriticismFictionFilm The figure of the dictator looms large in representations of postcolonial Africa. Since the late 1970s, writers, film-makers and theorists have sought to represent the realities of dictatorship without endorsing the colonialist clichés portraying Africans as incapable of self-government. Against the heavily-politicized responses provoked by this dilemma, Bishop argues for a form of criticism that places the complexity of the reader’s or spectator’s experiences at the heart of its investigations. Ranging across literature, film and political theory, this study calls for a reengagement with notions – often seen as unwelcome diversions from political questions – such as referentiality, genre and aesthetics. But rather than pit 'political' approaches against formal and aesthetic procedures, the author presents new insights into the interplay of the political and the aesthetic. Cécile Bishop is Lecturer in French at Royal Holloway, University of London. Reviews:
Bibliography entry: Bishop, Cécile, Postcolonial Criticism and Representations of African Dictatorship: The Aesthetics of Tyranny, Research Monographs in French Studies, 41 (Legenda, 2014) First footnote reference: 35 Cécile Bishop, Postcolonial Criticism and Representations of African Dictatorship: The Aesthetics of Tyranny, Research Monographs in French Studies, 41 (Legenda, 2014), p. 21. Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Bishop, p. 47. (To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.) Bibliography entry: Bishop, Cécile. 2014. Postcolonial Criticism and Representations of African Dictatorship: The Aesthetics of Tyranny, Research Monographs in French Studies, 41 (Legenda) Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Bishop 2014: 21). Example footnote reference: 35 Bishop 2014: 21. (To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)
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