Beyond Nanook's Smile: Visual Sovereignty in Nanook of the North
Location
PANEL: Examining Grief, Art, and Sovereignty through Film Creation and Analysis
King 343
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-26-2024 11:00 AM
End Date
4-26-2024 12:00 PM
Abstract
This research examines sites of visual sovereignty in the seal hunt scene from Nanook of the North (1922) by putting it in conversation with Angry Inuk (2016), a more recent Inuit documentary on seal hunting. I aim to reveal expressions of Indigenous sovereignty that scholars have previously overlooked in the literature and suggest that Nanook is not solely a work of colonial ideas as many have argued. To do this, I rely on a close reading and rhetorical analysis of Nanook of the North and Angry Inuk using “visual sovereignty” as my reading practice. Significantly, I have found that Inuit knowledge is centered in the film yet withheld from the viewer, highlighting Inuit authority on and over their cultural practices. The centering of Inuit knowledge and culture throughout the seal hunt scene is suggestive of Nanook’s potential.
Keywords:
Visual sovereignty, Cinema, Inuit
Recommended Citation
Wallace, Sumner, "Beyond Nanook's Smile: Visual Sovereignty in Nanook of the North" (2024). Research Symposium. 7.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2024/presentations/7
Major
Rhetoric; Media Studies
Project Mentor(s)
Cindy Chapman, Religion
Cortney Smith, Writing and Communication
2024
Beyond Nanook's Smile: Visual Sovereignty in Nanook of the North
PANEL: Examining Grief, Art, and Sovereignty through Film Creation and Analysis
King 343
This research examines sites of visual sovereignty in the seal hunt scene from Nanook of the North (1922) by putting it in conversation with Angry Inuk (2016), a more recent Inuit documentary on seal hunting. I aim to reveal expressions of Indigenous sovereignty that scholars have previously overlooked in the literature and suggest that Nanook is not solely a work of colonial ideas as many have argued. To do this, I rely on a close reading and rhetorical analysis of Nanook of the North and Angry Inuk using “visual sovereignty” as my reading practice. Significantly, I have found that Inuit knowledge is centered in the film yet withheld from the viewer, highlighting Inuit authority on and over their cultural practices. The centering of Inuit knowledge and culture throughout the seal hunt scene is suggestive of Nanook’s potential.
