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Synecdoche and Allegory in the filmic record of the memory of African Genocide in John Le Carré’s The Constant Gardener

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dc.contributor.author Masemola, Kgomotso
dc.contributor.author Makoe, Pinky
dc.date.accessioned 2015-03-16T13:45:56Z
dc.date.available 2015-03-16T13:45:56Z
dc.date.issued 2014-08
dc.identifier.citation Kgomotso Masemola & Pinky Makoe 2014. “Synecdoche and Allegory in the filmic record of the memory of African Genocide in John Le Carré’s The Constant Gardener” in Journal of Literary Studies”, 30:3, 67-77 en
dc.identifier.issn 0256-4718
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18391
dc.description.abstract This article shows that the filmic depiction of the death of Tessa Quayle, a social activist portrayed by Rachel Weisz, is a memorialised historical allegory of genocide caused by deliberate and lethal clinical trials of drugs conducted throughout Africa. Although the film is set in Kenya, it tells the real story of the clinical genocide committed in Nigeria. The authors of this article do not delve into the academically naïve question of whether or not the film (released in 2005) is a faithful representation of the 2001 novel, for the discrepancies – whether glaringly obvious or tastefully subtle – follow Fernando Mireilles’s style and interpretative variorum as a director who is capable of signature adjustments to the face of death. In this case, the death of one white woman (Tessa Quayle) is a synecdoche of the multitudinous African deaths caused by genocide. It is in this sense that the setting (Kenya and not Nigeria) lends credence to the paradoxical representation of the silent genocide in other parts of Africa, beyond Nigeria, through allegorical memorialisation. The authors conclude that the discovery of Tessa Quayle’s death is, therefore, a discovery of continental genocide revealed through allegorical representation. en
dc.language.iso en en
dc.publisher Taylor & Francis en
dc.subject clinical genocide en
dc.subject allegorical memorialisation en
dc.subject allegorical representation en
dc.subject The Constant Gardener en
dc.subject John le Carre en
dc.subject pharmaceutical trials en
dc.subject medical ethics en
dc.subject synecdoche en
dc.title Synecdoche and Allegory in the filmic record of the memory of African Genocide in John Le Carré’s The Constant Gardener en
dc.type Article en


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