Desire, Misogyny, and Official Power in Mark Dornford-May's U-Carmen eKhayelitsha
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/17533171.2012.715415
ISSN1753-3171
Autores Tópico(s)African studies and sociopolitical issues
ResumoAs the most frequently adapted narrative in film history, the story Carmen – based originally on Proper Mérimée’s 1845 novella and George Bizet’s 1875 opera of the same name – offers differing response to various intertextual debates concerning feminism, sexual freedom, interracial relations, high versus low art, and urbanism versus ruralism. This paper situates a recent Xhosa language, cinematic adaptation of the Opera, Mark Dornford-May’s U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha (2005), in response to these various cultural critical debates, while invoking previous critical discussions of American Carmen adaptations, by Charles Vidor and Otto Preminger respectively, as templates for furhter analysis. I argue that Dornford-May’s film offers a self-reflexive, and indeed progressive, response to the Carmen narrative’s contradictory ideological stance on issues of female sexual empowernment and misogny. U-Carmen also downplays the themes of interracial romance and rural nostalgia present in previous Carmen adaptations, so as to hone in on the various intra-township dynamics at work within the Khayelitsha communiy that the film depcitrs. U-Carmen offers a cynical depiction of the post-apartheid township society in which romantic and sexual freedom are presumed to be at odds with the forces of official power. When placed within the context of the post-apartheid Khayelitsha mileau, the failure of Carmen’s rebellious, anti-authoritarian, and romantic disposition comes to symbolize the unfullfilled promises of the post-apartheid era.
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