UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS/INGLÊS E LITERATURA CORRESPONDENTE RETURNING TO ZAMUNDA TO FIND PARADISE: EDDIE MURPHY’S COMING TO AMERICA AND THE POLITICS OF PARODY IN FILM. CLÁUDIA RAMOS NEVES Dissertação submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em cumprimento Parcial dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de MESTRE EM LETRAS FLORIANÓPOLIS FEVEREIRO 2004 On a gray evening Of a gray century, I ate an apple While no one was looking. A small, sour apple The color of woodfire Which I first wiped On my sleeve. Then I stretched my legs As far as they’d go, Said to myself Why not close my eyes now Before the late World News and Weather. Charles Simic-History In North America time stumbles on without moving, only releasing a certain North American pain. Julia de Burgos wrote: That my grandfather was a slave is my grief; had he been a master that would have been my shame. Adrienne Rich – from North American Time I dedicate this work to my mother, Léa, for showing me what is to be a Woman and to my children, Bruno and Amanda, for being the reason why I have become one. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most grateful to CAPES for providing me with a scholarship thereby enabling me to complete this requirement. I sincerely thank my professors and the secretarial staff at Pós-graduação em Inglês and my colleagues at Departamento de Língua e Literatura Estrangeiras, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, for their encouragement. Thank you to my family, specially my mother Léa, for helping me “making ends meet”. To my children for having resigned from having a mother during this period (instead, having put up with a neurotic one). To Amanda, who passed the last two years watching TV with earphones, and Bruno, who endured the task of helping a computer semi-illiterate. I would like to thank all the people who directly or indirectly contributed to making it possible for this thesis to be completed in any aspect. To all my students who have been teaching me more than I could ever teach them, specially the ones at Fábrica de Rendas e Bordados Hoepcke. A special thanks to Sílvia, my constant student who has become a dearest friend, and to my dearest friends Moacir and Onelba who have eventually become my students (and literally my shelter). I will forever be in debt with my neighbors Pedro and Lucas for letting me use their computers, checking my mail, and sometimes playing wonderful music next door which helped me concentrate so much on my work. I could not forget Spiky and Puc, for being the most loyal companions and warming my feet under the computer’s desk in my endless nights without sleep. I would like to thank the encouraging under-graduate professors at UFSC, specially Prof. Regina Carvalho – today in Journalism – who made me enjoy going to Literature vi classes, and Rosana Koerich, who made me think I could stand a chance; for both played a decisive role at moments when I thought of giving up. Equal thanks to the not so encouraging ones who somehow helped me develop my dialectical reasoning, therefore not taking “all” words for granted. My sincerest thanks to Prof. Anelise Corseuil, my co-advisor, for her precious hints on this thesis – even though she might not know it – silently collected during her classes and serving as essential ideas in my research. I will always be grateful to my advisor Prof. José Gatti, who introduced me to Film Studies and was responsible for my continuing in the graduate program when he showed me, through his classes, that there could be fun in all of this, after all. His overwhelming enthusiasm, and contagious laughter, allied with his immeasurable professional advice have helped me reconsider my opinion about the academia, and understand (if not accept) the meaning of quality instead of quantity. Thank you all, Cláudia. Florianópolis, January 2004. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION........................................................................................1 1.1. The Criteria for the Choice of Scenes.............................................................................3 1.2. Objectives and Research Questions................................................................................4 1.3. Methodology...................................................................................................................5 1.4. Outline of the Thesis.......................................................................................................6 CHAPTER II THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES.........................................................8 2.1. The Hollywood Style......................................................................................................8 2.2. Parody............................................................................................................................11 2.3. Stereotype......................................................................................................................14 2.3.1 The Limits of Stereotype.............................................................................................16 2.4. Mediations and Discourses............................................................................................17 2.5. Identity and Diaspora in the Cinematic Representation................................................19 2.5.1. The Nostalgia of Présence Africaine..........................................................................21 2.6. Post-Modern Black Cinema?.........................................................................................23 2.7. The Poetics of Film as a Discourse...............................................................................25 CHAPTER III HOLLYWOOD IS IN AFRICA – AFRICA IS IN HOLLYWOOD..30 3. Elements of the Mise-en-scene........................................................................................30 3.1. The Setting....................................................................................................................30 3.2. The Costumes................................................................................................................34 3.3. The Western Gaze.........................................................................................................35 3.3.1. Erotized Africa...........................................................................................................35 xii 3.3.2. The Western Gaze Camouflaged...............................................................................38 3.4. The Casting...................................................................................................................39 3.5. The Language................................................................................................................41 3.6. Contaminated Africa.....................................................................................................44 3.7.Stereotypes.....................................................................................................................46 3.7.1. The Prince..................................................................................................................46 3.7.2. The Stupid Native – Bimbos and Dummies..............................................................49 3.8. The Voyage Backwards................................................................................................51 CHAPTER IV MAPPING TERRA INCOGNITA..........................................................54 4. Elements of the Mise-en-scene.........................................................................................55 4.1. The Setting of “Have-nots”...........................................................................................55 4.1.2. Présence Americaine..................................................................................................57 4.1.3 The Barber Shop – Where Three Presences Meet.......................................................57 4.2. American Women and Moralism..................................................................................61 4.2.1. Club X Church...........................................................................................................61 4.2.2. The Lady X The Tramp..............................................................................................63 4.3. McDowell’s X McDonald’s – Allegories of Empowerment.........................................65 4.4. Institutions Targeted......................................................................................................66 4.4.1. The Church.................................................................................................................67 4.4.2. Capitalism – Labor X Money.....................................................................................69 4.4.3. Monuments of Power.................................................................................................70 4.5. The Plot.........................................................................................................................71 4.5.1. The Hero....................................................................................................................72 4.5.2. The Genius.................................................................................................................73 xiii 4.5.3. The Imbecile..............................................................................................................77 4.5.4. The Villains..............................................................................................................