Collective identity and traumatic memory in the cinematic expression

Authors : Asma Hedi Nairi

Pages : 43-56

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Publication Date : 2017-10-31

Article Type : Other

Abstract :The present article is an analysing work to the role of the cinematic production in the expression of traumatic memory and cultural identity, in the postcolonial North African societies. Following the cultural production and postcolonial theoretical framework, I try to investigate the way films as a form of visual art production enables the reconstruction of the past and recalls historical narratives. Analysing meanwhile the interconnection of the concepts of identity and memory the article focuses on their expression of the cultural productions. In a second level I specify the conceptual study to the "traumatic memory” and "cultural identity”, and I tried to explain the cinematographic tools explored in the construction of the remembered collectivity. The Lion of the Desert: Omar Muhtar being one of the rare films testifying the north African colonial history that reached an international fame, was the cinematic example followed to understand the way the visualization of cultural elements assure effective recall to the past and presents an alternative form of building the meaning and rebuilding the symbolism of the Hero to revive the collective and cultural memory in an intergenerational frame.
Keywords : Cultural identity, traumatic memory, post-colonialism, cinema studies