Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts: Language, Power, Identity Katrina Daly Thompson 9780253006516

This timely book reflects on discourses of identity that pervade local talk and texts in Zimbabwe, a nation beset by political and economic crisis. As she explores questions of culture that play out in broadly accessible local and foreign film and television, Katrina Daly Thompson shows how viewers interpret these media and how they impact everyday life, language use, and thinking about community. She offers a unique understanding of how media reflect and contribute to Zimbabwean culture, language, and ethnicity.

Katrina Daly Thompson is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and an affiliated faculty member in African Studies, the Center for the Study of Women, and Islamic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Katrina Daly Thompson has made a fine contribution to scholarship on African cinema . . . This is a book that will enrich discussions of African film and media studies for years to come.

Thompson (UCLA) analyzes identity discourses through cinematic arts-films, documentaries, television programs, videos-consumed (whether or not produced) in Zimbabwe. . . . Beside bringing issues of race, financing, ethnicity, and language to the discussion, she also considers the 2001 Broadcasting Services Act, which was meant to liberalize the field and stem Western influence. . . Recommended.

Katrina Daly Thompson's study of Zimbabwean film and television presents a valuable addition to the ever-expanding corpus of analytical and historical studies on African film and media.

Most compelling in Thompson's study is her close attention to uses of language and culture, which she argues contest state-defined and state-controlled meaning in broadcast media. Recognizing culture as a socially negotiated process, the book uses critical discourse analysis to interrogate power structures and flows.