Skip to content
1981
Volume 12, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1754-9221
  • E-ISSN: 1754-923X

Abstract

This article focuses primarily on mirror scenes in Lionel Rogosin’s ground-breaking African film (1959). To examine how specular reflections may be influenced by a director’s identity, Rogosin’s film is compared to another African classic, Ousmane Sembène’s (…) (1966). Despite surprising intertextual similarities, their specular reflections signify two very different filmic gazes. Both films are structured as fictional narratives that exhibit a documentary/fictional synthesis and set in inhospitable racist societies. By exploring how these scenes inform the narrative and identities of the characters, these specular encounters add a layer of meaning to films already firmly established in African cinema history.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00027_1
2020-03-01
2024-12-14
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aitken, Stuart C., and Zonn, Leo E.. ( 1994), Place, Power, Situation, and Spectacle: A Geography of Film, Lanham, MD:: Rowman and Littlefield;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Althusser, Louis. ( [1971] 2001), Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (trans. Ben Brewster.), New York:: Monthly Review Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bakari, Imruh. ( 2000;), ‘ Introduction: African cinema and the emergent Africa. ’, in J. Givanni. (ed.), Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema: Audiences, Theory and Moving Image, London:: British Film Institute;, pp. 324.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Balseiro, Isabel. ( 2003;), ‘ Come back, Africa: Black claims on White cities. ’, in I. Balseiro, and N. Masilela. (eds), To Change Reels: Film and Film Culture in South Africa, Detroit:: Wayne State University Press;, pp. 88111.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Barlet, Olivier. ( 2000), African Cinemas: Decolonizing the Gaze (trans. Chris Turner.), London:: Zed Books;. First published in 1996 as Les Cinémas d’Afrique Noire, Paris: L’Harmattan .
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bernardi, Daniel. (ed.) ( 2008), The Persistence of Whiteness: Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Carpenter, Edmund. ( 2003;), ‘ The tribal terror of self-awareness. ’, in P. Hockings. (ed.), Principles of Visual Anthropology, Berlin:: Mouton de Gruyter;, pp. 48192.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Coetzee, Carli. ( 2013;), ‘ All tickets please, or how cinema histories or South Africa can stop re-enacting the racialised past. ’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 39:3, pp. 72128.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Davis, Peter. ( 1996), In Darkest Hollywood: Exploring the Jungles of Cinema’s South Africa, Randburg:: Ravan Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Diawara, Manthia. ( 1988;), ‘ Black spectatorship: Problems of identification and resistance. ’, Screen, 29:4, pp. 6679.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Dovey, Lindiwe. ( 2005;), ‘ South African cinema in exile. ’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 41:2, pp. 18999.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Dovey, Lindiwe. ( 2019;), ‘ Towards alternative histories and herstories of African filmmaking: From bricolage to the “curatorial turn” in African film scholarship. ’, in K. W. Harrow, and C. Garritano. (eds), A Companion to African Cinema, Hoboken, NJ:: John Wiley and Sons;, pp. 46785.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Eco, Umberto. ( 1976;), ‘ Theory of sign production. ’, in A Theory of Semiotics, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;, pp. 151313.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Garritano, Carmela. ( 2013), African Video Movies and Global Desires, Athens, OH:: Ohio University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Grassilli, Mariagiulia. ( 2007;), ‘ Anthropology and cinema: Visual representations of human rights, displacement and resistance in Come Back Africa, by Lionel Rogosin. ’, Visual Anthropology, 20:2&3, pp. 22132.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gunning, Tom. ( 1986;), ‘ The cinema of attraction: Early film, its spectator and the avant garde. ’, Wide Angle, 8:3, pp. 6370.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Hanich, Julian. ( 2017;), ‘ Reflecting on reflections: Cinema’s complex mirror shots. ’, in M. Beugnet,, A. Cameron, and A. Fetveit. (eds), Indefinite Visions: Cinema and the Attractions of Uncertainty, Edinburgh:: Edinburgh University Press;, pp. 13156.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Harrow, Kenneth W.. ( 2013), Trash: African Cinema from Below, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. hooks, bel. ( 1992), Black Looks: Race and Representation, Boston:: South End Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Irobi, Esiaba. ( 2014;), ‘ Theorizing African cinema: Contemporary African cinematic discourse and its discontents. ’, in N. F. Ukadike. (ed.), Critical Approaches to African Cinema Discourse, Lanham, MD:: Lexington Books;, pp. 2345.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. De Jong, Ferdinand. ( 1999;), ‘ Trajectories of a mask performance: The case of Senegalese Kumpo. ’, Cahiers d’Études africaines, 39:153, pp. 4971.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Maingard, Jacqueline. ( 2007), South African National Cinema, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Maingard, Jacqueline. ( 2014;), ‘ Lost classics in context: Film production in South Africa, 1920–1960. ’, in L. Bisschoff, and D. Murphy. (eds), Africa’s Lost Classics: New Histories of African Cinema, London:: Legenda;, pp. 3549.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Mayne, Judith. ( 1993), Cinema and Spectatorship, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Metz, Christian. ( 1975;), ‘ The imaginary signifier. ’ (trans. Ben Brewster.), Screen, 16:2, pp. 1476. First published in 1975 as ‘Le Signifiant imaginaire’, Communications, 23, pp. 3–55 .
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Metz, Christian. ( 1982), The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema (trans. Society for Education in Film and Television) , Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Metz, Christian. ( 2016), Impersonal Enunciation, or The Place of Film (trans. C. Deane.), New York:: Columbia University Press;. First published in 1991 as Énonciation impersonelle, ou Le site du film, Paris: Klincksieck Press .
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Mhando, Martin. ( 2014;), ‘ Approaches to African cinema study. ’, in N. F. Ukadike. (ed.), Critical Approaches to African Cinema Discourse, Lanham, MD:: Lexington Books;, pp. 322.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Modisane, Litheko. ( 2013), South Africa’s Renegade Reels: The Making and Public Lives of Black-Centered Films, New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Mulvey, Laura. ( 1975;), ‘ Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. ’, Screen, 16:3, pp. 618.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Murphy, David, and Williams, Patrick. ( 2007), Postcolonial African Cinema: Ten Directors, Manchester:: Manchester University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Ogoro, Kingsley. ( 2003), Osuofia in London, Part 1, Nigeria:: Kingsley Ogoro Production;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Petty, Sheila. ( 2000;), ‘ Mapping the African “I”: Representations of women in La noire de ... and Histoire d’Orokia. ’, Social Identities, 6:3, pp. 30521.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Pfaff, Françoise. ( 1984), The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, A Pioneer of African Film, Westport, CT:: Greenwood Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Pfaff, Françoise. (ed.) ( 2004), Focus on African Films, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Reid, Mark A.. ( 1993), Redefining Black Film, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Rentschler, Eric. ( 1981;), ‘ Expanding film historical discourse: Reception theory’s use value for cinema studies. ’, Ciné-tracts, 4:1, pp. 5768.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Rochat, Philippe, and Zahavi, Dan. ( 2011;), ‘ The uncanny mirror: A re-framing of mirror self-experience. ’, Consciousness and Cognition, 20:2, pp. 20413.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Rogosin, Lionel. ( 1956), On the Bowery, USA:: Milestone Films;.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Rogosin, Lionel. ( 1959), Come Back, Africa, South Africa and USA:: Lionel Rogosin Films;.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Rogosin, Lionel, and Davis, Peter. (eds) ( 2005), Come Back, Africa: Lionel Rogosin, A Man Possessed, Johannesburg:: STE;.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Sembène, Ousmane. ( 1966), La noire de… (Black Girl), France and Senegal:: Filmi Domirev;.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Silverman, Kaja. ( 1983), The Subject of Semiotics, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Silverman, Kaja. ( 1989;), ‘ Fassbinder and Lacan: A reconsideration of gaze, look, and image. ’, Camera Obscura, 7:1, pp. 5485.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Silverman, Kaja. ( 1992), Male Subjectivity at the Margins, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Silverman, Kaja. ( 2000;), ‘ Apparatus for the production of an image. ’, Parallax, 6:3, pp. 1228.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Stewart, Jacqueline N.. ( 2005), Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Tomaselli, Keyan G.. ( 1993;), ‘ “African cinema”: Theoretical perspectives on some unresolved questions. ’, Critical Arts, 7:1&2, pp. 110.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Tomaselli, Keyan G.. ( 1996), Appropriating Images: The Semiotics of Visual Representation, Højbjerg:: Intervention Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Tomaselli, Keyan G., and Shepperson, Arnold. ( 2011;), ‘ Mirror communities and straw individualisms: Essentialism, cinema and semiotic analysis. ’, Journal of African Cinemas, 3:1, pp. 324.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Ukadike, Nwachukwu F.. ( 1994), Black African Cinema, Berkeley, CA:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Ukadike, Nwachukwu F.. (ed.) ( 2014;), ‘ Introduction: Proliferating African film discourse. ’, in Critical Approaches to African Cinema Discourse, Lanham, MD:: Lexington Books;, pp. ixxvi.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. White, Patricia. ( 1999), Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Wagner, Ludwig. ( 2020;), ‘ The wo/man in the mirror. ’, Journal of African Cinemas, 12:1, pp. 4770, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00027_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00027_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00027_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error