Black narcissus : a post-colonial empire rilm?

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  • Black narcissus: a post-colonial empire film?

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Abstract

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's film Black Narcissus, released just weeks before Indian Independence in 1947, dramatizes the doomed attempt of a group of British nuns in northern Indian to establish a school and hospital. Despite the early critics' misgivings, the movie won two Academy Awards for its cinematography and art direction, and now, having been critically reappraised in recent years, occupies an iconic niche in the British cinema canon. It is a liminal work: whilst its focus on female characters seems to mark a break with the male-dominated `empire films' of the 1930s and 40s, the Orientalist construction of `India' and the dominant male discourse of the film still carry all of the hallmarks of a masculinist, imperial perspective. This paper will examine the colonial and seemingly post-colonial elements of the film and assess its place in the cinematic representation of Empire.

Journal

  • 言語文化

    言語文化 9 (4), 593-611, 2007-03-10

    Doshisha Society for the Study of Language and Culture

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