Cieplak, Piotr (2016) History, trauma and remembering in Kivu Ruhorahoza’s Grey Matter (2011). Journal of African Cultural Studies. ISSN 1369-6815

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Abstract

In 1994, the genocide in Rwanda claimed at least 800,000 lives in just 100 days. More than 20 years on, the memory and trauma of the atrocities still permeate the Rwandan society. This article explores how some of these different manifestations of trauma (individual and collective, actual and inherited, real and imagined, that of survivors and perpetrators), and especially their relationship to the genocide as a historical event, shape the internationally recognized Rwandan feature film, Kivu Ruhorahoza’s Grey Matter (2011). Drawing on the scholarship on trauma, the article examines Grey Matter’s uniqueness within feature films on the topic and its ambition to tackle the impossibility of memory and objectivity vis-à-vis varied experiences of the genocide. It traces the connection between trauma and Grey Matter’s structure, which refuses to offer events a firm chronological placement, both within and beyond the narrative.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Media, Film and Music > Media and Film
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT History of Africa N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Depositing User:	Piotr Cieplak
Date Deposited:	27 Sep 2017 08:09
Last Modified:	31 Oct 2017 11:43
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/70358

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