Cultural Representations of Massacre: Reinterpretations of the Mutiny of Senegal - Hardcover

Parent, Sabrina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137274964 ISBN 13: 9781137274960

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Synopsis

Over the past sixty years, the massacre of Thiaroye (Senegal), the 1944 mutiny of African soldiers that was severely suppressed by the French army, has been continuously reinterpreted by artists such as L. S. Senghor, F. Keita, Doumbi-Fakoly, O. Sembene, B. B. Diop, R. Bouchareb, and F. F. Faye. In this book, Parent puts together a history of these representations, characterizing their socio-historical role and the way each document (re-)interprets the events. Combining a first-hand analysis of the works and their intertextual interactions, as well as an external perspective (which consists of reconstructing the socio-historical contexts of production and reception of each document), Parent engages with history, literature, film, poetics, and politics and highlights the importance of remembering the past.

About this title

Review:

"With erudition, elegance, and sensitivity, Parent documents how writers, filmmakers, and poets over the years reinserted Thiaroye into African and French history and memory. She thus gives a voice to the former colonized people who present their own rendering of the events. This remarkable scholarship is informative, sophisticated, and offers a stimulating reading experience." - Dina Sherzer, Professor Emeritus of French, Italian, and Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin, USA

"With great acuity, Parent provides a clear, explanatory history of people: those who actually suffered from the lethally arrogant behavior of the colonists, as well as those who strove to mark the massacre of Thiaroye in writing, using a creative talent that is necessarily somewhat removed from complete historical accuracy. I am indebted to Parent, whose tireless and profound work made me first admit, and later share her point of view that the official history of the massacre of Thiaroye was in fact merely fiction - which is not to say a lie. This research represents a historic milestone." - Armelle Mabon, Associate Professor of History, Université de Bretagne-Sud, Lorient, France

About the Author:

Sabrina Parent is a research fellow in the Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1137274964
• ISBN 13: 9781137274960
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 222