Screens and Veils: Maghrebi Women's Cinema

Examined within their economic, cultural, and political context, the work of women Maghrebi filmmakers forms a cohesive body of work. Florence Martin examines the intersections of nation and gender in seven films, showing how directors turn around the politics of the gaze as they play with the various meanings of the Arabic term hijab (veil, curtain, screen). Martin analyzes these films on their own theoretical terms, developing the notion of transvergence to examine how Maghrebi women's cinema is flexible, playful, and transgressive in its themes, aesthetics, narratives, and modes of address. These are distinctive films that traverse multiple cultures, both borrowing from and resisting the discourses these cultures propose.

Author: Florence Martin
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 10/13/2011
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780253223418

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2012

About the Author

Florence Martin is Professor of French and Francophone Literature and Cinema at Goucher College and Associate Editor of Studies in French Cinema. She is author of Bessie Smith, of De la Guyane à la diaspora africaine (with Isabelle Favre), and of A vous de voir! (with Maryse Fauvel and Stéphanie Martin).