Abstract

This dissertation examines the role of cinema as a conduit of black expressions of identity. It finds that since its inception, cinema has played an important part in generating, on the one hand, imaginary significations about black peoples, and, on the other hand; imaginative signifying(s) harmonized with black expressions of identity. This dissertation reviews the categories of cultural and-political identity in order to discern the reenacted practices of expression linking the socio-historical experience of black peoples to trans-geographical expressions of identity in film. It concludes that specific paradigms of communication, such as 'affectivity' and 'resilience,' determine the ways in which some black people articulate their practices of identity through the medium of cinema. Examination of these paradigms as discursive practices of ' détournement ' or ' marronage ' allows us to understand the more complex effects of Africanicity as a necessary reenactment and articulation of their social, cultural, and historical experiences