|
|
Mar 1, Mar 8 Film Discussion: Camp de Thiaroye Guest Lecturer: Kandioura Dramé, Associate Professor, Department of French Language and Literatures Prof. Dramé received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1984. His area of interests include Francophone Literature and Comparative African Literatures. He is currently the Vice-President and President-elect of the African Literature Association and Associate Editor, CARAF Books. In the French Department, Prof. Dramé teaches Africa in Cinema (FREN 443) and African Literature (FREN 570). March 1: We will watch the first half of Camp de Thiaroye in class March 8: Prof. Kandioura Dramé will lead a discussion about the film You must watch the second half of the film *BEFORE* the class discussion. There
will be two showings at the following times:
About the Film: Camp
de Thiaroye (VHS
10066) In Wolof and French with English Subtitles Sembene's
Camp de Thiaroye -which he co-directed with Thierno Faty Sow- is a powerful,
fact-based drama which, like Emitai, deals with the dilemma of Africa
troops in the French Army at the end of World War II (a turning point
in African history when the colonial myth of white superiority began
to collapse and an African consciousness emerged). The story opens with
repatriated Senegalese infantrymen (many of whom, after heroic and bloody
service, had been abandoned at Dunkirk and confined in Nazi concentration
camps) being placed in a transit camp ostensibly for temporary internment
before discharge. The real purpose, however, is to reestablish the structures
of white oppression disrupted by the war. A dispute over petty regulations
soon escalated into full-scale Einsenstein's Odessa Steps in its ruthlessness
and artistry. |
||||||||||