Fragmenting Colonial Stereotypes in the Films Chocolat (1988) and Tabu (2012)

This article draws on elements of postcolonial and feminist theory to raise the question of ‘whose post-colonial?’ and examines the norm of excess, which condemns the silenced Other. By analysing how the films Chocolat (1988) and Tabu (2012) fragment the fixity of the colonial gaze in relation to the black Other and woman as Other, this study revisits Homi Bhabha's idea of the fixed colonial stereotype and Laura Mulvey's concept of the male gaze. Further, the analysis calls attention to how both films embrace the technique of the flashback that both challenges the problematic of the ‘colonized Other’ and negotiates colonial memories in colonial/post-colonial discourses.