Dina Sherzer

In this first major study of French colonial and postcolonial cinema, Dina Sherzer compiles essays by some of the foremost scholars on the subject who interrogate and analyze the realities behind the images of the nation's past and present. Through an examination of France and its colonies, multiethnic contemporary France, and cinematic discourses which have been and are being produced about France's colonial past, these authors explore how the images relay underlying assumptions and their relation to historical and political facts. A variety of subjects and viewpoints inform these studies, which cover the entire range of films on that topic. The authors expound upon the role French and Francophone films are currently playing in reconstructing and imagining France's colonial past. Not only do the essays examine how French cinema has represented the encounter of French citizens with individuals from former colonies during the colonial era; they examine how French cinema has portrayed and has come to terms with the immigration of former colonial subjects to France. In addition, the book features another postcolonial facet by analyzing films of directors from the former colonies who give their own representation of colonialism and presentation of their culture. This study is a major contribution to postcolonial research. Race, gender, and geography are central themes throughout this book that presents innovative material that contributes to the history of French cinema and emphasizes how cinema participates in and is a part of national culture.

Perspectives from the French and Francophone Worlds

Cinema, Colonialism, Postcolonialism

Joel Sherzer

Yolanda Lastra de Suárez

Yolanda Lastra

Mexico is famous for spectacular fiestas that embody its heart and soul. An expression of the cult of the saint, patron saint fiestas are the centerpiece of Mexican popular religion and of great importance to the lives and cultures of people and communities. These fiestas have their own language, objects, belief systems, and practices. They link Mexico's past and present, its indigenous and European populations, and its local and global relations. This work provides a comprehensive study of two intimately linked patron saint fiestas in the state of Guanajuato, near San Miguel de Allende—the fiesta of the village of Cruz del Palmar and that of the town of San Luis de la Paz. These two fiestas are related to one another in very special ways involving both religious practices and their respective pre-Hispanic origins. A mixture of secular and sacred, patron saint fiestas are multi-day affairs that include many events, ritual specialists, and performers, with the participation of the entire community. Fiestas take place in order to honor the saints, and they are the occasion for religious ceremonies, processions, musical performances, dances, and dance dramas. They feature spectacular costumes, enormous puppets, masked and cross-dressed individuals, dazzling fireworks, rodeos, food stands, competitions, and public dances. By encompassing all of these events and performances, this work displays the essence of Mexico, a lens through which this country's complex history, religion, ethnic mix, traditions, and magic can be viewed.

Fiestas in Central Mexico

Adoring the Saints

Charles Rossman

Alan Warren Friedman

Up to now, Samuel Beckett has been considered largely as a commentator on the human condition and on the angst of our time, and as a novelist and a playwright who undermines and manipulates the metaphysical assumptions and conventions that underlie language and representation. This book offers a new perspective. The contributors, all outstanding Beckett scholars, emphasize three significant aspects of Beckett's career that have been acknowledged but given insufficient consideration. Beckett is a translator, an experimenter with form and expression in two languages simultaneously; Beckett is a multimedia creator who has worked with several kinetic, verbal, and visual possibilities and resources; Beckett has inspired experimentation and creativity in others. Thus, translation is viewed in this book not as a secondary production, but rather as a dynamic process that involves adaptations, interpretations, transformations, and transpositions, all activities requiring strategies and techniques for transcoding on the part of the translator. The scholars represented in this book examine both what is translated and how it is translated, with the result that a new set of questions about Beckett's works is raised, and the answers point to further avenues of research.

Dina Sherzer

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