Jeanne-Marie Viljoen, PhD | University of South Australia (original) (raw)
Papers by Jeanne-Marie Viljoen, PhD
Image & text, Nov 1, 2023
The Greenlandic visual artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators h... more The Greenlandic visual artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators have produced a series of four graphic narratives to represent distinct moments in Greenland's history, spanning the pre-colonised and colonial period. These narratives employ aspects of magic realism and adopt an approach to narrative that focuses on the supernatural and presents modes of being that contrast with their audiences' understanding of realities that are ordinarily (only) visible. I argue that these graphic narratives use strategies from speculative fiction that frame the modern European presence in Greenland and the narrative of colonialism as one of several multiple realities in the Arctic, rather than its central axis, leaving open the possibility for indigenous Greenlanders to speak on their own terms. This enables these graphic narratives to illuminate aspects of knowledge (including features of oral legend and supernatural encounters) that were previously discredited in colonial discourse. Furthermore, I show that attending to how embodied aspects of Greenlandic Inuit storytelling traditions can be captured in the graphic narrative medium may be an effective decolonial strategy, which could be employed by speculative fiction. I thus advocate methodologies for speculative fiction that strategically broaden its boundaries in order to address its intractable colonial legacy. Informed by approaches that focus attention on form-such as Marks's haptic visuality (2000) and visual theories of the power of hand-drawn comics (Groensteen 2010, Chute 2008) to engage the reader/viewer in both an embodied and reflective way-I assert that including graphic narratives which employ strategies of speculative fiction may present a unique opportunity for the genre to mount a powerful challenge to a colonial knowledge production.
Journal article - roundtable, 2023
With the box office success of the recent Black Panther films it may seem that Holl... more With the box office success of the recent Black Panther films it may seem that Hollywood’s approach to such films is slowly accommodating a domestic audience’s demand for diversity. Yet, there is a danger in assuming that these films are still largely made for white audiences, since these audiences and their repre- sentatives in Hollywood boardrooms may become convinced that films like this are proof of Hollywood having engaged with Africa and done enough about diversity. This paper argues that to ensure the continued success of diverse
artists in Hollywood and elsewhere the focus should extend beyond a study of the domestic market and look toward the formal ‘alien esthetic’ engage- ments and structure of the colonial gazing at spectacle that Hollywood demands all its audiences invest in.
This paper presents Africa’s established experience of super diversity and its recognized authority in the arts – particularly the way its formal esthetics of spectacle and fantasy exceed the visual and are entwined with the lived-conditions of its audiences – as central to approaching a deeper understanding of diversity in cinema. Drawing upon this “progressive African aesthetic” to expand Hollywood’s formal engagement with fantasy and visual spectacle, opens an opportunity to decolonize Hollywood’s gaze and understand diversity in cinema more deeply.
Aila Review, Sep 27, 2022
Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning
Image & text, May 5, 2022
Despite the commercial success of Black Panther (Coogler 2018) and its ostensible achievement of ... more Despite the commercial success of Black Panther (Coogler 2018) and its ostensible achievement of making Hollywood more representative of black people and "their" narratives, the film is limited in terms of the progress on inclusion it can achieve. This is because, as a Hollywood superhero film, its success is predicated upon perpetuating the colonisation of the imagination of its (still largely white) spectators and it does not represent black people on their own terms. A close focus on form exposes the film as retaining the spectacular and action-orientated visual language of Hollywood that engenders cinema as fundamentally voyeuristic and imperial. In this way, a close examination of Black Panther supports the examination of limits of what the commercial structure of an industry established upon the colonial gaze of spectacle is currently able to produce. This paper goes fur ther and also argues that decolonisation in cinema should involve a more radical confrontation of Hollywood aesthetics and the formal language of Hollywood's gaze itself, so that the embodied visual languages of global cinema and New Black cinema may be more widely employed to reveal the world of those colonised by Hollywood as materially different, on their own terms. It is only by going beyond the success of films like Black Panther in the box office and through a radical investigation of form and haptic visuality that the considerably unequal structure of the Hollywood boardroom − which produces such films in the first place − may be transformed.
In disallowing the inaccuracies of memory to infiltrate stories of war, one condemns oneself to r... more In disallowing the inaccuracies of memory to infiltrate stories of war, one condemns oneself to remain forever blinded by the obvious, shielded from the invisible violence that often lurks beneath the visible. Following Žižek, this article posits that invisible violence should be glimpsed indirectly, through aesthetic representations often excluded from the annals of the official history of war. The argument is made through a close reading of Joe Sacco\u27s representation of the 1956 Khan Younis massacre as depicted in Footnotes in Gaza. In this text, Sacco himself and Omm Nafez – one of the protagonists of his story – express, in detail, their memories of the massacre, despite the initial reluctance of the media and publishing houses to publish their accounts. The position of Sacco and Omm Nafez is described as being that of ‘productive myopia’ because the inaccuracies and confusions that their accounts accommodate – instead of being limiting – are considered an avenue through whic...
I would like to thank a number of people without whom this text would not have been possible. Lik... more I would like to thank a number of people without whom this text would not have been possible. Like this topic, this list is by no means exhaustive. My supervisor, Louise, for her constant encouragement, enthusiasm and tireless assistance, for honing my offerings, making me feel heard when I wanted to give up and for giving of herself. My editor, Idette, for her scholarly precision, kindness and steady willingness to go the extra mile. Gerhard, for his pervasive, solid engagement and passionate support in every aspect of this project. Daniel, for always making me think more than I thought I could. Isabella, for writing on and relating to everything and for carrying the name of my daughter. Chris, for his consultations about German and making available his general brilliance. Charl and Gene, for making debate a part of me. and Ricky, for suggesting writing. iii Foreword The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature. (De Man, n.d.: n.p.) The topic of writing has intrigued me ever since I can remember and continues to do so. This study is by no means exhaustive but merely represents some punctuation marks in a rich riot of meanings that may be associated with this topic. The views expressed here are my own and should not be associated with the University of Pretoria as an institution.
This book focuses on non-fictional, visual narratives (including comics, graphic narratives, anim... more This book focuses on non-fictional, visual narratives (including comics, graphic narratives, animated documentaries and online interactive documentaries) that attempt to represent violent experiences, primarily in the Levant. In doing so, it explores, from a philosophical perspective, the problem of representing trauma when language seems inadequate to describe our experiences and how the visual narrative form may help us with this. The book uses the concept of the ineffable to expand the notion of representation beyond the confines of a western, individualist notion of trauma as event based. In so doing, it engages a postcolonial perspective of trauma, which treats violence as ongoing and connected to several incidents of violence across time and space. This book demonstrates how the formal qualities of visual non-fiction may help fill the gap between representation and experience through the process of ‘dark’ writing.
Perspectives in Education, 2005
The rate of adoption of mobile technologies in Africa's developing countries is amongst the h... more The rate of adoption of mobile technologies in Africa's developing countries is amongst the highest in the world and by 2005 there may be almost 100 billion mobile users in Africa (Keegan, 2002; Brown, 2005). This is just one of the reasons why servicing distance students in this country through m-learning1 support tools should enjoy consideration. At the Unit for Distance Education at the University of Pretoria most of our students are from remote rural areas in South Africa where there is very little infrastructure for access, yet most have mobile phones. We started using Short Message Services (SMSs) for basic administrative support during 2002 in three existing teacher training programmes for inservice teachers offered by this unit. Recently we have begun preliminary research on the use of SMSs for academic learning support purposes. We are currently running a second exploratory pilot project in one of our modules where four asynchronous academic SMS learning support tools h...
The Greenlandic oral story-telling tradition, Oqaluttuaq, meaning “history,” “legend,” and “narra... more The Greenlandic oral story-telling tradition, Oqaluttuaq, meaning “history,” “legend,” and “narrative,” is recognized as an important entry point into Arctic collective memory. The graphic artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators have used the term as the title of graphic narratives published from 2009 to 2018, and focused on four moments or ‘snippets’ from Greenland’s history (from the periods of Saqqaq, late Dorset, Norse settlement, and European colonization). Adopting a fragmentary and episodic approach to historical narrativization, the texts frame the modern European presence in Greenland as one of multiple migrations to and settlements in the Artic, rather than its central axis. We argue that, in consequence, the Oqaluttuaq narratives not only “provincialize” the tradition of hyperborean colonial memories, but also provide a postcolonial mnemonic construction of Greenland as a place of multiple histories, plural peoples, and heterogenous tempor...
Language and Intercultural Communication
ABSTRACT Intercultural pedagogies are increasingly seen as affording opportunities for students t... more ABSTRACT Intercultural pedagogies are increasingly seen as affording opportunities for students to share perspectives, understandings and knowledge. In the shift towards such pedagogies, ways that language is conceptualised and the interrelationship between language, culture and knowing are often underexplored. This paper reports on an auto-ethnographic study that explores our experience as teachers of extending intercultural pedagogies beyond the context of language learning in higher education. Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1981) The dialogic imagination: Four essays notion of dialogism and Derrida’s (1997) Of grammatology notion of translation, we describe and explain how our reflexive practice enables us to deepen our focus both on language, culture, and knowing as integral in creating and interpreting meaning, and the self.
Image & text, Nov 1, 2023
The Greenlandic visual artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators h... more The Greenlandic visual artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators have produced a series of four graphic narratives to represent distinct moments in Greenland's history, spanning the pre-colonised and colonial period. These narratives employ aspects of magic realism and adopt an approach to narrative that focuses on the supernatural and presents modes of being that contrast with their audiences' understanding of realities that are ordinarily (only) visible. I argue that these graphic narratives use strategies from speculative fiction that frame the modern European presence in Greenland and the narrative of colonialism as one of several multiple realities in the Arctic, rather than its central axis, leaving open the possibility for indigenous Greenlanders to speak on their own terms. This enables these graphic narratives to illuminate aspects of knowledge (including features of oral legend and supernatural encounters) that were previously discredited in colonial discourse. Furthermore, I show that attending to how embodied aspects of Greenlandic Inuit storytelling traditions can be captured in the graphic narrative medium may be an effective decolonial strategy, which could be employed by speculative fiction. I thus advocate methodologies for speculative fiction that strategically broaden its boundaries in order to address its intractable colonial legacy. Informed by approaches that focus attention on form-such as Marks's haptic visuality (2000) and visual theories of the power of hand-drawn comics (Groensteen 2010, Chute 2008) to engage the reader/viewer in both an embodied and reflective way-I assert that including graphic narratives which employ strategies of speculative fiction may present a unique opportunity for the genre to mount a powerful challenge to a colonial knowledge production.
Journal article - roundtable, 2023
With the box office success of the recent Black Panther films it may seem that Holl... more With the box office success of the recent Black Panther films it may seem that Hollywood’s approach to such films is slowly accommodating a domestic audience’s demand for diversity. Yet, there is a danger in assuming that these films are still largely made for white audiences, since these audiences and their repre- sentatives in Hollywood boardrooms may become convinced that films like this are proof of Hollywood having engaged with Africa and done enough about diversity. This paper argues that to ensure the continued success of diverse
artists in Hollywood and elsewhere the focus should extend beyond a study of the domestic market and look toward the formal ‘alien esthetic’ engage- ments and structure of the colonial gazing at spectacle that Hollywood demands all its audiences invest in.
This paper presents Africa’s established experience of super diversity and its recognized authority in the arts – particularly the way its formal esthetics of spectacle and fantasy exceed the visual and are entwined with the lived-conditions of its audiences – as central to approaching a deeper understanding of diversity in cinema. Drawing upon this “progressive African aesthetic” to expand Hollywood’s formal engagement with fantasy and visual spectacle, opens an opportunity to decolonize Hollywood’s gaze and understand diversity in cinema more deeply.
Aila Review, Sep 27, 2022
Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning
Image & text, May 5, 2022
Despite the commercial success of Black Panther (Coogler 2018) and its ostensible achievement of ... more Despite the commercial success of Black Panther (Coogler 2018) and its ostensible achievement of making Hollywood more representative of black people and "their" narratives, the film is limited in terms of the progress on inclusion it can achieve. This is because, as a Hollywood superhero film, its success is predicated upon perpetuating the colonisation of the imagination of its (still largely white) spectators and it does not represent black people on their own terms. A close focus on form exposes the film as retaining the spectacular and action-orientated visual language of Hollywood that engenders cinema as fundamentally voyeuristic and imperial. In this way, a close examination of Black Panther supports the examination of limits of what the commercial structure of an industry established upon the colonial gaze of spectacle is currently able to produce. This paper goes fur ther and also argues that decolonisation in cinema should involve a more radical confrontation of Hollywood aesthetics and the formal language of Hollywood's gaze itself, so that the embodied visual languages of global cinema and New Black cinema may be more widely employed to reveal the world of those colonised by Hollywood as materially different, on their own terms. It is only by going beyond the success of films like Black Panther in the box office and through a radical investigation of form and haptic visuality that the considerably unequal structure of the Hollywood boardroom − which produces such films in the first place − may be transformed.
In disallowing the inaccuracies of memory to infiltrate stories of war, one condemns oneself to r... more In disallowing the inaccuracies of memory to infiltrate stories of war, one condemns oneself to remain forever blinded by the obvious, shielded from the invisible violence that often lurks beneath the visible. Following Žižek, this article posits that invisible violence should be glimpsed indirectly, through aesthetic representations often excluded from the annals of the official history of war. The argument is made through a close reading of Joe Sacco\u27s representation of the 1956 Khan Younis massacre as depicted in Footnotes in Gaza. In this text, Sacco himself and Omm Nafez – one of the protagonists of his story – express, in detail, their memories of the massacre, despite the initial reluctance of the media and publishing houses to publish their accounts. The position of Sacco and Omm Nafez is described as being that of ‘productive myopia’ because the inaccuracies and confusions that their accounts accommodate – instead of being limiting – are considered an avenue through whic...
I would like to thank a number of people without whom this text would not have been possible. Lik... more I would like to thank a number of people without whom this text would not have been possible. Like this topic, this list is by no means exhaustive. My supervisor, Louise, for her constant encouragement, enthusiasm and tireless assistance, for honing my offerings, making me feel heard when I wanted to give up and for giving of herself. My editor, Idette, for her scholarly precision, kindness and steady willingness to go the extra mile. Gerhard, for his pervasive, solid engagement and passionate support in every aspect of this project. Daniel, for always making me think more than I thought I could. Isabella, for writing on and relating to everything and for carrying the name of my daughter. Chris, for his consultations about German and making available his general brilliance. Charl and Gene, for making debate a part of me. and Ricky, for suggesting writing. iii Foreword The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature. (De Man, n.d.: n.p.) The topic of writing has intrigued me ever since I can remember and continues to do so. This study is by no means exhaustive but merely represents some punctuation marks in a rich riot of meanings that may be associated with this topic. The views expressed here are my own and should not be associated with the University of Pretoria as an institution.
This book focuses on non-fictional, visual narratives (including comics, graphic narratives, anim... more This book focuses on non-fictional, visual narratives (including comics, graphic narratives, animated documentaries and online interactive documentaries) that attempt to represent violent experiences, primarily in the Levant. In doing so, it explores, from a philosophical perspective, the problem of representing trauma when language seems inadequate to describe our experiences and how the visual narrative form may help us with this. The book uses the concept of the ineffable to expand the notion of representation beyond the confines of a western, individualist notion of trauma as event based. In so doing, it engages a postcolonial perspective of trauma, which treats violence as ongoing and connected to several incidents of violence across time and space. This book demonstrates how the formal qualities of visual non-fiction may help fill the gap between representation and experience through the process of ‘dark’ writing.
Perspectives in Education, 2005
The rate of adoption of mobile technologies in Africa's developing countries is amongst the h... more The rate of adoption of mobile technologies in Africa's developing countries is amongst the highest in the world and by 2005 there may be almost 100 billion mobile users in Africa (Keegan, 2002; Brown, 2005). This is just one of the reasons why servicing distance students in this country through m-learning1 support tools should enjoy consideration. At the Unit for Distance Education at the University of Pretoria most of our students are from remote rural areas in South Africa where there is very little infrastructure for access, yet most have mobile phones. We started using Short Message Services (SMSs) for basic administrative support during 2002 in three existing teacher training programmes for inservice teachers offered by this unit. Recently we have begun preliminary research on the use of SMSs for academic learning support purposes. We are currently running a second exploratory pilot project in one of our modules where four asynchronous academic SMS learning support tools h...
The Greenlandic oral story-telling tradition, Oqaluttuaq, meaning “history,” “legend,” and “narra... more The Greenlandic oral story-telling tradition, Oqaluttuaq, meaning “history,” “legend,” and “narrative,” is recognized as an important entry point into Arctic collective memory. The graphic artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators have used the term as the title of graphic narratives published from 2009 to 2018, and focused on four moments or ‘snippets’ from Greenland’s history (from the periods of Saqqaq, late Dorset, Norse settlement, and European colonization). Adopting a fragmentary and episodic approach to historical narrativization, the texts frame the modern European presence in Greenland as one of multiple migrations to and settlements in the Artic, rather than its central axis. We argue that, in consequence, the Oqaluttuaq narratives not only “provincialize” the tradition of hyperborean colonial memories, but also provide a postcolonial mnemonic construction of Greenland as a place of multiple histories, plural peoples, and heterogenous tempor...
Language and Intercultural Communication
ABSTRACT Intercultural pedagogies are increasingly seen as affording opportunities for students t... more ABSTRACT Intercultural pedagogies are increasingly seen as affording opportunities for students to share perspectives, understandings and knowledge. In the shift towards such pedagogies, ways that language is conceptualised and the interrelationship between language, culture and knowing are often underexplored. This paper reports on an auto-ethnographic study that explores our experience as teachers of extending intercultural pedagogies beyond the context of language learning in higher education. Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1981) The dialogic imagination: Four essays notion of dialogism and Derrida’s (1997) Of grammatology notion of translation, we describe and explain how our reflexive practice enables us to deepen our focus both on language, culture, and knowing as integral in creating and interpreting meaning, and the self.