1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823209203321

Autore

Gullestad Marianne

Titolo

Picturing pity : pitfalls and pleasures in cross-cultural communication : image and word in a north Cameroon mission / / Marianne Gullestad

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, [New York] ; ; Oxford, [England] : , : Berghahn Books, , 2007

©2007

ISBN

1-84545-343-3

1-78238-880-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (320 p.)

Disciplina

306.6/6602348106711

Soggetti

Missions - Norway

Missions - Cameroon

Intercultural communication - Religious aspects - Christianity

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

PICTURING PITY; CONTENTS; INTRODUCTION; 1. PROPAGANDA FOR CHRIST; 2. ESTABLISHING A GOODNESS REGIME; 3. IMAGINING A CALL FROM AFRICA; 4. REFLECTIONS ON TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS; 5. GOD'S SOWERS AND REAPERS; 6. WOMEN AND CHILDREN:BOTH MARGINAL AND CENTRAL; 7. MUSLIM MEN: DANGEROUS RIVALS AND EXOTIC VILLAINS; 8. VICTIMS AND VILLAINS IN A FEATURE FILM FROM 1960; 9. FROM RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA TO CULTURAL HERITAGE; 10. GOODNESS AND ITS SIDE-EFFECTS; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Picturing Pity is the first full length monograph on missionary photography. Empirically, it is based on an in-depth analysis of the published photographs taken by Norwegian evangelical missionaries in Northern Cameroon from the early nineteen twenties, at the beginning of their activities in this region, and until today. Being part of a large international movement, Norway sent out more missionaries per capita than any other country in Europe. Marianne Gullestad's main contention is that the need to continuously justify their activities to donors in Europe has led to the creation and maintenance of specific ways of portraying Africans. The missionary visual rhetoric is both based on earlier visualizations and has over time established its own conventions



which can now also be traced within secular fields of activity such as international development agencies, foreign policy, human relief organizations and the mass media. Picturing Pity takes part in the present "pictorial turn" in academic teaching and research, constituting visual images as an exciting site of conversation across disciplinary lines.