IAH-207-733 - HOMEWORK: WRITTEN RESPONSE TO READINGS and/or VIDEOS

Assignment GUIDE:

This assignment is a written response to your required videos this week, by answering the questions below.  It must be submitted as a Word document, with your name, course number, and session in the top left-corner, then dropped in its designated D2L DropBox. 

Question:

Building on your reading in previous modules analyze in depth how French colonial history in Africa (Algeria) and in Asia (Vietnam) is remembered, by using specific examples, quotes, and other details from the film to illustrate your point.

Answer 5 questions of your choice from the following list, by using examples from BOTH films:

To fully develop your thoughts consider the following questions ABOUT THE STORY, ITS CHARACTERS AND EVENTS:

1. Whether the titles of the films "Indochine" and "The Battle of Algiers" adequately represent the actual content of the film. If so, how? if not, what do you think will make a more adequate title? If yes, and no, explain how.
2. From whose point of view do we have access to the history of French Indochina of French Algeria?
3. Whose voice dominates in the representation of French Indochina and of French Algeria?
4. Describe the conditions of existence of Indochinese people and of Algerian people under the colonial system. How are the relationships between French and indigenous people in Vietnam and Algeria represented? How how do the French characters fit into this?
5. Discuss the representation of women in both films: are they depicted as powerless/submissive or as having power/ agency, or both? explain how/why using different and specific examples.
6. Give examples illustrating the Indochinese people and the Algerian people’s subordinate status, and others that express resistance to colonial oppression.
7. How is the French colonial system/regime represented?
8. Whose story is foregrounded (when one considers the opening and ending of the film)? 
9. Based on the story, discuss how colonialism disrupts, changes, destroys and/or blurs notions of identity, cultural affiliation, lineage, and belonging.

Remember: Provide specific examples, use quotes, drawn directly from the videos and link them to specific ideas developed in articles we read in Weeks 1-2.