Mimesis and the senses: Contemplations in spectatorship, otherness and virtual imagery in “De Stilte Rond Christine M.”, “Visages de femmes”, and “La Petite vendeuse de soleil”
Abstract
This study examines in Marlene Gorris' De Stilte Rond Christine M. (1982), Desiré Ecaré's Visages de femmes (1985) and Djibril Diop Mambety's La Petite vendeuse de soleil (1999) the western viewer's philosophical transformation into the domain of visionary and participatory spectatorship. The transformation from passive to interactive viewership involves the mimetic processing of sensory relations during the viewer's apprehension of pluralistic image possibilities by the convergence of virtual and actual expressions. In the complex designs of post colonial and intercultural cinema, leading theories in the visual field, predominantly Gilles Deleuze's work in the Cinema volumes, examine pluralistic expressions in ways which elide the categorizing and hierarchizing of the so-called categories of subject, object and observer. My project extends the consciousness raising on viewer-image relations without exercising the oppressive, linear and naturalized applications located in western humanist thought. The coalescence of virtual and actual filmic images creates variations of cognitive dissonance which afford the viewer the gaps necessary to link singular reflections of otherness located in the self, while considering the variable contexts, limitations and struggles present in different national, cultural and geographical locations. Mambety, Ecaré and Gorris construct a visual doubling of virtual and actual aspects of images. The doubling of image aspects in this film suggests for the viewer new boundaries of image apprehension, which appeal to the knowledge and memory of the senses. These new boundaries extend the accessible, already assimilated images of the actual to also include the visionary and imaginary musings of the virtual in the creation of new text. The convergence of these aspects invite semiotic expedition and the development of a ‘listening,’ participatory spectatorship. Examination of selected footage in De stilte Rond Christine M., Visages de femmes and La Petite vendeuse de soleil demonstrate how the contemplations incited from the two intersecting modes of images transforms the western viewer from the consuming, all-knowing passive observer to a creator of links and mediator of signs that serve a larger human continuum.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Broden, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Comparative literature|Germanic literature|African literature|Motion pictures
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