Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts: Language, Power, Identity

Description

This timely book reflects on discourses of identity that pervade local talk and texts in Zimbabwe, a nation beset by political and economic crisis. As she explores questions of culture that play out in broadly accessible local and foreign film and television, Katrina Daly Thompson shows how viewers interpret these media and how they impact everyday life, language use, and thinking about community. She offers a unique understanding of how media reflect and contribute to Zimbabwean culture, language, and ethnicity. Cover Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations INTRODUCTION: Cultural Identity in Discourse CHAPTER 1 A Crisis of Representation CHAPTER 2 Cinematic Arts before the 2001 Broadcasting Services Act: Two Decades of Trying to Build a Nation CHAPTER 3 Authorship and Identities: What Makes a Film “Local”? CHAPTER 4 Changing the Channel: Using the Foreign to Critique the Local CHAPTER 5 Power, Citizenship, and Local Content: A Critical Reading of the Broadcasting Services Act CHAPTER 6 Language as a Form of Social Change: Public Debate in Local Languages CONCLUSION: Possibilities for Democratic Change Notes Bibliography Filmography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z