Dayna Oscherwitz
Dayna Oscherwitz is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas where she teaches courses on French, African, and North African cinema and culture. She is author of Past Forward: French Cinema and the Postcolonial Heritage (2010) and co-editor of The Western in the Global South (2015). She has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters on French and African cinema.
Subjects: Area Studies, Media and Cultural Studies
Biography
Dayna Oscherwitz is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Chair of World Languages and Literatures at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she teaches courses on French and African Cinema and an interdisciplinary seminar on Ethnoviolence. She is author of Past Forward: French Cinema and the Postcolonial Heritage (2010) and co-editor of The Western in the Global South (2015) as well as author or co-author of various other books, book chapters, and articles. Her work lies at the intersection of media studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies.Education
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Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin 2001
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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French Cinema, African Cinema, Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies, Immigration Studies
Personal Interests
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I have various personal interests ranging from film (particularly genre films) and fashion (an interest shared by my creative daughter) to politics, social justice, cooking, gardening and psychology. I am also something of a sports fan (football and basketball) and have been inspired to be so by my two very active children, and in particular my sports-obsessed, football playing son. I am also an avid Doctor Who fan, and have been since I was a girl (during the Tom Baker era).
Books
Articles
A Twice-Told Tale: The Post-Colonial Allegory of La Noire de... and Faat Kine
Published: Oct 01, 2015 by Ousmane Sembene and the Politics of Culture
Authors: Dayna Oscherwitz
Subjects:
Media and Cultural Studies, Area Studies
This article reads Ousmane Sembene's La Noire de... and Faat Kine as two different explorations of the relationship between Africa and the Global North in the postcolonial, globalized era. It argues that the two films, although very different from one another, present Africa as a single woman attempting to make her way in the new global economy. What distinguishes one film from the other is principally the genre used to tell the tale, film noir and melodrama, respectively.
Once Upon a Time that Never Was: Jean-Pierre Jeunet's The Fabulous Desinty of Am
Published: Feb 01, 2011 by The French Review
Authors: Dayna Oscherwitz
Subjects:
Media and Cultural Studies, Area Studies
This article explores Jean-Pierre Jeunet's blockbuster film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain or simply Amelie as an exploration of the role of nostalgia in national film and in the construction of national history and memory. The article questions interpretations of the film as racist and nationalist, and argues that, on the contrary, the film is a careful deconstruction of nationalist narratives of identity and the role that nostalgia and heritage play in their construction.
Shaking up the historical (Film): Christophe Gans's Le Pacte des loups
Published: Jan 03, 2011 by Studies in French Cinema
Authors: Dayna Oscherwitz
Subjects:
Media and Cultural Studies, Area Studies
This article explores the super-production Le Pacte des loups / Brotherhood of the Wolf through the filters of heritage, postcolonialism, and postmodernism. It argues that the film harnesses the spectacle of cinematic production as a means of foregrounding the elements of pastiche involved in constructing histories particularly national histories and it calls for both skeptical reception and active revision of received history.
Of Cowboys and Elephants
Published: Apr 01, 2008 by Research in African Literatures
Authors: Dayna Oscherwitz
Subjects:
Media and Cultural Studies, Area Studies
This article explores Djibril Diop Mambety's 1992 film Hyenas through the filter of the Hollywood Western. It argues that Hyenas engages the paradigm of the Hollywood Western and the Italian "Spaghetti" Western to explore the relationship among colonialism, Africa, decolonization, neo-liberalism, and globalization.
POP GOES THE BANLIEUE: MUSICAL. METISSAGE AND THE ARTICULATION OF A MULTICULTUL
Published: Feb 01, 2004 by Contemporary French and Francophone Studies
Authors: Dayna Oscherwitz
Subjects:
Media and Cultural Studies, Area Studies
This article explores French popular music of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, particularly rai and hip-hop, as expressions of cultural hybridity offered by France's younger generations as articulations of and arguments for multiculturalism. The article considers both lyrical content and musical form, and suggests that there is often tension between the two, which may be seen as representing both the unsettled acceptance of France's diverse population and the resolution of that question.