The Making of the Pentecostal Melodrama

Religion, Media and Gender in Kinshasa
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-85745-494-2
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 6, 348 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 658 g

Reihe: Anthropology of Media

How religion, gender, and urban sociality are expressed in and mediated via television drama in Kinshasa is the focus of this ethnographic study. Influenced by Nigerian films and intimately related to the emergence of a charismatic Christian scene, these teleserials integrate melodrama, conversion narratives, Christian songs, sermons, testimonies, and deliverance rituals to produce commentaries on what it means to be an inhabitant of Kinshasa.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pype, Katrien

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christliche Kirchen, Konfessionen, Denominationen Protestantismus, evangelische und protestantische Kirchen Pfingstkirchen
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Religionsethnologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

On Language

Chapter 1. The First Episode

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Religion, Media and Kinshasa’s Public Sphere

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Working with Cultural Producers

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Mediation and Remediation

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Research Methodologies

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Structure of the Text

Chapter 2. Cursing the City. The Ethnographic Field and the Pentecostal Imagination

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The Heat of Kinshasa

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Competing Christianities

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Signs of the Apocalypse

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Witchcraft, or the Extraction of Life

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A Christian Key Scenario

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To Conclude: (Re-)Presenting the Apocalypse

Chapter 3. Of Fathers and Names. Social Dynamics in an Evangelising Drama Group

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Bienvenu Toukebana: Setting up and Managing a Drama Group

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Fiston ‘Chapy’ Muzama: From Rapper to Pastor

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The Pastor and Maman Pasteur

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Clovis Ikala: Setting up a New Theatre Company

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Cinarc versus the Group of Muyombe Gauche: Rivalries among Troupes

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Mamy Moke and her Lover

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Ance Luzolo: Boasting with a Contact

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Conclusion

Chapter 4. Variations on Divine Afflatus. Artistic Inspiration, Special Effects, and Sermons

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The Christian Artist

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The Pastor

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Special Effects as Visual Evidence

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Conclusion: Special Effects, Dreams and Melodrama

Chapter 5. Mimesis in Motion. Embodied Experiences of Performers and Spectators

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Going into Seclusion

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Mimesis and Possession

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Spectators and the Sacred

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Visuality and the Senses

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Framing to Protect

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Closing Notes: Mediating Performances

Chapter 6. The Right Road. Moral Movements, Confessions and the Christian Subject

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‘I am a Sinner’

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The Moral Movement

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A Modern Purification?

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To Conclude I: Mediation by the Holy Spirit: Transformation from Evil to Purity

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To Conclude II: Melodrama and Rituals

Chapter 7. Opening up the Country. Christian Popular Culture, the Generation Trouble and Time

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The Difference between Existing and Living

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The Generation Trouble

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The Healing Power of Narrative

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Past, Present and Future

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To Conclude: Youth, Christianity and Development

Chapter 8. Marriage comes from God. Negotiating Matrimony and Sexuality (Part I)

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Against Ethnic Endogamous Marriages: Mayimona

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Incest Reconsidered: The Devouring Fire

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Negotiating Adultery: The Open Tomb

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Concluding Notes: Playing the Games

Chapter 9. The Danger of Sex. Negotiating Matrimony and Urban Sexuality (Part II)

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Kindumba: Deviations from Accepted Sexual Practices

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God’s Men Making Meaning of Sex

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Opposing Messages

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Women and Social Power: The Moziki Women and Vedettes

Conclusion I: Negotiations about Matrimony and Sexuality

Conclusion II: The Melodrama and the Feminine

Chapter 10. Closure, Subplots and Cliffhanger

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The Melodrama on and beyond the Screen

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Cultural Producers in an Apocalyptic Society

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The Recovery of the Salon

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The Next Episode

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Pype, Katrien
Katrien Pype is an Associate Professor at University of Leuven and a Honorary Research Fellow with the Department of African Studies & Anthropology at University of Birmingham. She is co-initiator, with Miles Larmer and Rueben Loffman, of Congo Research Network, a platform that aims at enhancing dialogue and collaboration among Congo researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

Katrien Pype is an Associate Professor at University of Leuven and a Honorary Research Fellow with the Department of African Studies & Anthropology at University of Birmingham. She is co-initiator, with Miles Larmer and Rueben Loffman, of Congo Research Network, a platform that aims at enhancing dialogue and collaboration among Congo researchers in the humanities and social sciences.