Comments on: Trope Trove, or Colonial Fairy Tales

By: rootlesscosmo

rootlesscosmo — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 07:26:06 +0000

The hidden civilization ruled by a mysterious white queen–or the white woman who accompanies the European explorer as his magical talisman for to overawe the Africans. (This is alluded to, ironically, in the script of John Huston’s Beat the Devil.

By: grussell

grussell — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:39:05 +0000

I know this is late but John Holbo just mentioned this over at Crooked Timber. - child raised by animals in the jungle (The Jungle Book, Tarzan?) - lone animal-like African woman, super strong and strong-smelling, might "seduce" visiting foreigner (Heart of Darkness, Anais Nin)

By: IndyJones1967

IndyJones1967 — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:36:11 +0000

A couple of things spring most readily to mind beyond the ugly cartoon stereotype of the blackface, big-lipped jungle cannibal. The first likely ties in to #13, and that’s the old myths of the elephant graveyard and the hidden valley where dinosaurs still roam. The other has less to do with so-called “black” Africa than North Africa: the legends and myths of the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara. You could tie into it other stories of the “casbah” (oooo, Charles Boyer) from one direction, pre-war 20th century romance, and from another direction the “Dogs of War” stories of white mercenaries of someone like Frederick Forsythe. After all, your current students are likely to be far more familiar with the trope of a post-colonial Africa roiled by war and revolution, by Idi Amins and Robert Mugabes than they are Albert Schweitzers and Doctor Livingstons.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 19 May 2005 11:54:42 +0000

Trope #1 is clearly very old, possibly tied to the idea of the Garden of Eden. What sprang to my mind first was the legend of Prester John’s kingdom, which from the early 1400s onward was thought to be in Africa. (A little surfing shows that earlier it was thought to be in Asia, but European contact with China, India and Mongolia refuted that notion.) Clearly, though, the students will have to do a lot of narrowing on this topic to have any sort of manageable project.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Wed, 18 May 2005 23:39:26 +0000

King Solomon's Mines is indeed a key point of origin, though Haggard derived some of his characteristic images from a number of even earlier sources. I've taught the book in all the versions of this course that I've offered.

By: emschwar

emschwar — Wed, 18 May 2005 23:26:17 +0000

H. Rider Haggard did a number of stories about Africa in general, including the seminal She (1886), focusing on the hidden civilization, #1, and King Solomon's Mines. He undoubtedly influnced Burrough's Tarzan, and most likely is at least partially responsible for much of the fantastic and popular fiction concerning Africa. His stories cover pretty much all of your listed tropes except for #16, and may well touch upon that; I haven't read anywhere near his entire works. I honestly don't have any idea whether he originated any of those tropes (I rather doubt it), but it's certainly a useful touchpoint for tracing the evolution of popular European and American views of Africa in the late 19th century.

By: Michael_Tinkler

Michael_Tinkler — Wed, 18 May 2005 22:33:39 +0000

LucaffÃ© has the most amazing: barefoot, big lips, etc:
http://www.internetto.de/cgi-bin/internetto/tame/internetto-de/Artikel/0209101.tam?referer_url1=http://www.google.com/search?client%3dsafari%26rls%3den-us%26q%3dlucaffe%26ie%3dUTF-8%26oe%3dUTF-8

(sorry for the url, but it’s the biggest image I could find)

By: Michael_Tinkler

Michael_Tinkler — Wed, 18 May 2005 22:28:07 +0000

Like the hunting/safari use, what about the agricultural use of Africa (Kenyan coffee planters)?

In Italy a striking number of the sugar packets and coffee packagings are “African,” including some visual usages that wouldn’t have flown in America in the last 30 years (my students were shocked that these things were on restaurant tables). They’re in the same vein as Juan Valdez. It’s a topic I’d love to set for one of our own Media & Society majors next time I’m there with a group.

nasty flash interface, but try this and download their images/icons: http://www.tazzadoro.it/

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Wed, 18 May 2005 13:23:20 +0000

Gary, that’s a good one, though for various reasons it seems to me to frequently “settle” on South and East Asians or Latin Americans rather than Africans.

The “superstitious bearer” trope is clearly a subset of a whole host of safari/hunting tropes.

By: eb

eb — Wed, 18 May 2005 01:49:54 +0000

Specific landscapes: desert and jungle, savannah. (This may fit into #13.)

Also:

Africa as a site for European/American leisure: hunting, safari, etc.

Source of mysterious objects with mysterious powers such as masks, etc.