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Title Postcolonial Testimony and the Ruins of Empire
Full text http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/25053; http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/24175
Date 2020
Author(s) Stock, Robert
Abstract This contribution explores the multi-faceted relations of postcolonial testimony and architectural remains by focusing on Os hóspedes da noite (2007, dir. Licínio de Azevedo). The film stages a visit to the Grande Hotel in Beira and ambivalently highlights its significance for the Mozambican-Portuguese decolonization process. It engages the experiences of two former employees of the hotel and the daily life of the actual residents, mostly refugees of the civil war. The analysis concentrates on how filmic practices, colonial ruins and testimony intersect in this production. I argue that Os hóspedes da noite might be understood as a way of 'thinking with the ruins of empire' which is 'to emphasize less the artefacts of empire as dead matter or remnants of a defunct regime than to attend to their re-appropriations […] within the politics of the present' (Stoler 2008: 196). - Peer Reviewed
Subject(s) documentary film; Mozambique; postcolonialism; ruins; 777 Kinematografie und Videografie; ddc:777
Language eng
Publisher Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Type of publication bookPart; doc-type:bookPart
Format application/pdf
Rights http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Identifier 10.4324/9780429026836-6; urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/25053-4
Repository Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin
Added to C-A: 2022-03-30;11:05:34