Portrait and the Colonial Imaginary

Simon Dell teaches in the Department of Art History and World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia.

• Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Making men Citizens and subjectsA new humanity The Republican imaginary and the colonial imaginary The colonial imaginary renewed Portraits, points of view, and representation Portraits and subjectivities 2. Perception, apperception and disavowal André Gide and Marc Allégret in the CongoGide’s queer disposition Allégret’s apprenticeships Perceiving the African The heart of things Difference and differentiation Resistance and accommodation Allégret’s editions Missionary perceptions Civilisation, portraiture and contingency 1 3. Staging, actors and audiences The Exposition coloniale internationale in ParisLyautey’s project Time, portrait, patriarchy Structures of resistance and the limits of opposition Shame Roger Parry’s third space The burden of civilisation 4. Performance, appropriation and dispossession King Ibrahim Njoya and Mosé Yeyap in the Cameroon GrassfieldsExtraversion and representation Njoya’s appropriations The making of Yeyap The palace and the museum Exhibition, alienation and dispossession The uses of the image of Njoya Yeyap’s arts in France Epilogue Charles Atangana between Africa and FranceNotes Sources Illustration Credits Index

Dell offers a new and very useful analysis of the complicated interrelationship between France, African colonies, and photography during the years between 1900 and 1930—a moment when the “French empire” was at its strongest. Most importantly, he recognizes that there are many kinds of colonizing gazes, and he analyzes in depth three case studies to tease out the differences. Kim Sichel, The Journal of Modern History 2023 95:2, 474-475, https://doi.org/10.1086/724605