The ghostly matter of asylum in Kivu Ruhorahoza's A Tree Has Fallen (Europa).

This paper applies Avery Gordon's insights in Ghostly Matters to Kivu Ruhorahoza's 2019 film, A Tree Has Fallen, and vice-versa. For Gordon, the ghost reveals visibility itself to be "a complex system of permissions and prohibitions." The ghost is a case, as Gordon puts it, of "visible invisibility,...

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Publicado en:Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 24 - 38
Autor principal: Higgins, MaryEllen
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 2019
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: The ghostly matter of asylum in Kivu Ruhorahoza's A Tree Has Fallen (Europa).
      aug:
        au: Higgins, MaryEllen
        affil: MaryEllen (Ellie) Higgins is Associate Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University
      su:
        Ruhorahoza, Kivu
        Ghosts in motion pictures
        Political refugees
        Protagonists (Persons) in literature
        Subjectivity in motion pictures
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          Ruhorahoza, Kivu
          Ghosts in motion pictures
          Political refugees
          Protagonists (Persons) in literature
          Subjectivity in motion pictures
      keyword:
        African cinema
        asylum
        Avery Gordon
        Ghostly Matters
        Kivu Ruhorahoza
      ab: This paper applies Avery Gordon's insights in Ghostly Matters to Kivu Ruhorahoza's 2019 film, A Tree Has Fallen, and vice-versa. For Gordon, the ghost reveals visibility itself to be "a complex system of permissions and prohibitions." The ghost is a case, as Gordon puts it, of "visible invisibility," of seeing that one is not there. In Ruhorahoza's film, the protagonist, Simon, is an African asylum seeker in the UK, now a ghost. Even before he becomes ghostly matter, Simon is already ghostly: he is held in limbo, consistently denied, deemed threatening, highly visible yet rendered invisible, a figure whose claims to a past are deemed invalid in official channels. For Gordon, the ghost is a liminal presence, "what appears dead, but is nevertheless powerfully alive." In Ruhorahoza's film, the protagonist appears to be alive, but is nevertheless powerfully dead. Gordon notes the refusal of modern social scientists to acknowledge, or to speak to ghosts: what happens when British subjects speak to its African ghosts, and vice versa? This paper investigates what the ghostly relations in the film suggest about political subjectivity, visibility, and the politics of asylum. Potentially, the essay offers a reading of what may no longer be visible in Ruhorahoza's film, as the essay was written before Ruhorahoza edited A Tree Has Fallen, transformed it, and re-titled it Europa.
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