Textualizing the visual and visualizing the text

ABSTRACT

In the absence of the international coverage of the Rwandan genocide, most international audiences came to know the Rwandan tragedy through the film, Hotel Rwanda, which was directed by Terry George, and which came out in 2004 – ten years after the genocide of 1994. The film is a chilling visual account of how nearly one million Tutsis were massacred by Hutu extremists in the span of nearly 100 days. However, following on the “heels” of the production of Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina and Tom Zoellner published An ordinary man: the true story behind “Hotel Rwanda” (2006) a book that claims to tell the “truth” behind the film. The question then is: How much of what happened in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 was Hotel Rwanda authorized to tell and not to tell? This article does not seek to confirm whether or not what the film depicts corresponds point for point with what is in the book. Rather, using Derrida's concept of “iteration”, this article explores the dynamics that exist when a subject or theme narrativized in one form is repeated in another. The article then links iteration, which produces différance in textual meanings to Bakhtin's idea of the “chronotope” as a place of encounter in genres of popular culture. The article argues that films construct meanings during moments of enunciation and that these meanings can significantly alter the narratives contained in a novel on the same theme. A novel can elaborate what film time may not achieve in a limited time-span, while a film can also offer transgressive meanings through its visual language that words on the page of a novel may not be able to animate.