Music, Cinema and the Representation of Africa

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how music is used in cinema to create representations of Africa. It begins by tracing the early importance of musicality and performance in cinema back to other cultures of visuality and socio-political ideologies that were prevalent at the time of cinema’s birth. The result of this relationship means that cinema has functioned as both a tool for portraying Africa as the “Dark Continent” and for reshaping narratives about the nature of African identities, history, politics and cultures. Music in cinematic portrayals of Africa is, therefore, part of a system of representation in which films potentially serve as historico-cultural artefacts. By analysing the musical texts alongside the visual narratives and against the backdrop of the societies in which they are created a more nuanced articulation of the tensions and specificities of African societies can be unearthed.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Film Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Callender, Natasha

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Paul Coates

• African identities
• (post)colonialism
• alterity
• cultural narratives
• representation
• visual culture
• musical texts
• performance

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/36409

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/36409