Creating a New Multicultural Frame: The Cinematographic Suppression of Half of a Yellow Sun
Date
2018-05-29
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-9137-7820
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
In cinematic adaptations, the repression of most of the information in the source material can easily be misconstrued and quickly categorized as a result of the reductionist measures that cinematic adaptations of novels typically go through. I argue that in the case of the cinematic adaption of Chimamanda Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun, the suppression that pervades the production and the release of the film in Nigeria is more political than aesthetic. Not privileging literature over films, I reveal how the historical suppression of the Biafra story continues in the reduction of aspects of Adichie’s depiction of the Biafran War in the cinematic adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun by the film’s producers, which perpetuates a tactical pattern of an incomplete representation that dates back to the Nigerian Civil War. The tenets and relevance of this project transcend Nigeria and its environs into a global landscape of discourses on war literature and its cinematic repression.
Description
Keywords
Cinematic adaptations, repression, Chiamanda Adichie, Nigeria, Biafra Story
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
English
Program
English