Masculinity, hybridity and nostalgia in French colonial fiction films of the 1930s

The present study explores the problematics of race, ethnicity, nation and gender with reference to the relatively neglected body of colonial films produced in France during the 1930s. This troubled period was ushered in by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and by the advent of film sound. It ended with the start of the Second World War which marked what in hindsight can be seen as the beginning of the end of Europe's colonial empires.

The first part of the thesis lays the theoretical foundations which underpin this study, it examines the historical and cultural contexts within which these films were inscribed and it attempts a definition of the somewhat nebulous concept of 'colonial cinema'. The second part focuses on a number of colonial 'types' - the 'colonised', the historical figure, the settler and the legionnaire - around which French, masculine and imperial identities were constructed.

Conducting both an ideological and semiotic analysis of a number of filmic texts, and making use of various theoretical approaches - such as studies on the nature of myths, post-colonial theory, gender representation studies, and moral and political philosophy - this thesis investigates the discursive positions adopted in the films, which are found to be mostly in tune with the dominant interwoven discourses about empire, the nation and masculinity, whilst also setting out to uncover various slippages and silences which allow for the expression of uncertainties and ambivalences. Particular emphasis is put on two notions which are found to permeate these texts and contribute to unsettling preferred images of Frenchness and masculinity, namely 'nostalgia' and 'hybridity'.

This study therefore aims to challenge prevailing notions of French colonial films as dichotomous representations of empire expressing a monolithic sense of French racial superiority and the jingoistic celebration of national achievement and masculine prowess. Close analysis of these films reveals them to be polysemic, multi-layered texts. They tell us less about the reality of the colonial world and more about the mindset of those responsible for its representation, and who were deeply preoccupied with struggles in metropolitan France and wracked by anxieties about masculine, imperial and national identities.