Can The Subaltern Speak?: Silence and Sound in Claire Denis’s Chocolat and White Material

Abstract

This paper examines how sound and silence structure the representation of colonial memory in Claire Denis’ films Chocolat (1988) and White Material (2009). Drawing on Leela Gandhi’s concept of postcolonial “remembering,” I argue that Claire Denis uses auditory forms—silence, overheard speech, radio broadcasts, and music—to register colonial tensions that persist beneath the surface of everyday life. Although critics such as Laura Ceia suggest that Denis’s focus on white women risks reproducing colonial hierarchies, this paper contends that the films instead expose the instability of white colonial perception. Across both films, sound is a medium through which suppressed histories surface and escape colonial control.