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November 19:

• Please have good look at the opening sequence of Xala. How does it set up the film's principle oppositions? How does it define the relationships between Europeans and Africans? How does it achieve comical or satirical effects? How does humor work here? How does it position the viewer? How are we made to identify or disidentify with what we see on screen?
• "[A]t the end of Xala Sembene consciously subverts the dynamics of comedy, as though to assert its limitations." (Lucy Fischer, 171) Please read both the Fanon and the Fischer article carefully. Do you agree with Fischer's reading? What are the limits of comedy? What lies beyond them?

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