Journey to the New World. Cinematic Ethnographic Fiction in Post-Colonial Perspective

Krzysztof Loska

krzysztof.loska@uj.edu.pl
Jagiellonian University (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4078-798X

Abstract

Starting from James Clifford’s statement that ethnography is a product of travel experience and referring to the concept of Michael Taussig, who in his studies of South American tribes took into account the history of colonial conquest, the impact of missionary activities and the role of cultural borrowings, Loska proposes an analysis of the Colombian film Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente, 2015, directed by Ciro Guerra) in a post-colonial perspective. The author interprets this film as an attempt to critically consider the Amazon myth, that is the European fantasy created by explorers and travellers seeking Paradise Lost, but also as a story of disinheritance from tradition, loss of memory by indigenous people, reflection on the effects of colonial violence and hybridization (understood as a space where influences clash and languages mix).


Keywords:

Ciro Guerra, Colombian cinema, colonialism, Amazonia, ethnography

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Published
2019-09-30

Cited by

Loska, K. (2019) “Journey to the New World. Cinematic Ethnographic Fiction in Post-Colonial Perspective”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (107), pp. 88–98. doi: 10.36744/kf.159.

Authors

Krzysztof Loska 
krzysztof.loska@uj.edu.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4078-798X

Profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, dyrektor Instytutu Sztuk Audiowizualnych tamże, wiceprezes Polskiego Towarzystwa Badań nad Filmem i Mediami, redaktor naczelny „TransMissions: Journal of Film & Media Studies”. Zajmuje się kulturą japońską i historią filmu. Autor publikacji naukowych, w tym dwunastu książek, m.in.: Dziedzictwo McLuhana – między nowoczesnością a ponowoczesnością (2001), Hitchcock: autor wśród gatunków (2002), David Cronenberg: rozpad ciała, rozpad gatunku (2003, wspólnie z A. Pitrusem), Tożsamość i media. O filmach Atoma Egoyana (2006), Poetyka filmu japońskiego (2009), Kenji Mizoguchi i wyobraźnia melodramatyczna (2012), Nowy film japoński (2013), Mistrzowie kina japońskiego (2015), Postkolonialna Europa: etnoobrazy współczesnego kina (2016).



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