Making of the Pentecostal Melodrama

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.

“I would highly recommend this fascinating  ethnography to upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars in anthropology and African, religious, media, performance, and urban studies.”  ·  American Anthropologist“This book is… an exemplary combination of detailed ethnography and anthropological theory that is rare in the study of Pentecostalism. Pype’s writing is flawless and engaging. She also allows immediate access to some of the film material through the publisher’s website. Moreover, Pype’s reflections of her own role as researcher provide transparent insights into the dynamics of her fieldwork. This dimension also makes the book a reference-point for those interested in participant observation among Pentecostals.”  ·  Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute“Clearly, the analysis and conclusions of this book reach much wider than Kinshasa’s Pentecostal groups alone. Not only does it have far-reaching consequences for contemporary thinking on religion, and where and how to study it, it also opens up discussions in the fields of media, popular culture and arts, youth, gender and sexuality, and urban studies. As such, the book - with accompanying moving images available at Berghahn’s website - is of great value to a much wider readership than only those interested in Pentecostalism in Africa.”  ·  Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions“Pype’s book is a contribution to ‘anthropology of media’, an upcoming sub-discipline of cultural studies, and this (but not only this) makes this publication so important.,,[and] inspiring.”  ·  PentecoStudies“By offering a vibrant ethnography of the trajectories of evangelizing TV actors’, their personal ambitions, anxieties, and disagreements with one another, Pype deconstructs the content of the melodrama…the ethnography offers insight into the role of religious media in the public sphere and its impacts on morals, even in secularized societies.”  ·  Sociology of Religion“Pype proposes a very innovative understanding of the continuum between artistic and moral dimensions of media production/consumption. For this, she uses the problem of gender as a critical guideline to understand the continuities and disruptions provoked by the ‘Pentecostal melodrama’. From this perspective, this book…moves beyond the mere analysis of Pentecostalism as a phenomenon in itself, placing it within a wider, more fruitful scopeof reflection.”  ·  Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale“Theoretically literate, based on superb ethnography, this book provides one of the best studies of television we have yet in African studies…[that] promises to open up a new field of analysis and define the standards for how this research is to be conducted…a landmark that will make a significant contribution to some of the main fields in African studies and anthropology.”  ·  Brian Larkin, Columbia University“[A] tour de force. This very elegantly and evocatively written ethnography of Congolese television drama is a path-breaking example of what it means to conduct and construct a thick description of a culture of media production.”  ·  Debra Spitulnik Vidali, Emory University“This book is beautifully written, theoretically sophisticated, nuanced in its analysis and empirically rich. Given that so much has already been written on African Pentecostalism, coming up with something original and new to say on the topic is quite a challenge, but Pype pulls it off and deserves a lot of credit for that.”  ·  Martin Lindhardt, University of Copenhagen“The author deserves great praise for the original way in which she moves her analysis beyond a mere observation of African Pentecostalism. This ethnographically grounded book not only captures the heterogeneity that marks Kinshasa in a beautiful way, but it also innovatively combines three currently burgeoning fields within anthropology: the anthropology of urban settings, the anthropology of youth, and the anthropology of media.”  ·  Filip De Boeck, University of Leuven

• IllustrationsAcknowledgementsOn LanguageChapter 1. The First EpisodeReligion, Media and Kinshasa’s Public SphereWorking with Cultural ProducersMediation and RemediationResearch MethodologiesStructure of the TextChapter 2. Cursing the City. The Ethnographic Field and the Pentecostal ImaginationThe Heat of KinshasaCompeting ChristianitiesSigns of the ApocalypseWitchcraft, or the Extraction of LifeA Christian Key ScenarioTo Conclude: (Re-)Presenting the ApocalypseChapter 3. Of Fathers and Names. Social Dynamics in an Evangelising Drama GroupBienvenu Toukebana: Setting up and Managing a Drama GroupFiston ‘Chapy’ Muzama: From Rapper to PastorThe Pastor and Maman PasteurClovis Ikala: Setting up a New Theatre CompanyCinarc versus the Group of Muyombe Gauche: Rivalries among TroupesMamy Moke and her LoverAnce Luzolo: Boasting with a ContactConclusionChapter 4. Variations on Divine Afflatus. Artistic Inspiration, Special Effects, and SermonsThe Christian ArtistThe PastorSpecial Effects as Visual EvidenceConclusion: Special Effects, Dreams and MelodramaChapter 5. Mimesis in Motion. Embodied Experiences of Performers and SpectatorsGoing into SeclusionMimesis and PossessionSpectators and the SacredVisuality and the SensesFraming to ProtectClosing Notes: Mediating PerformancesChapter 6. The Right Road. Moral Movements, Confessions and the Christian Subject‘I am a Sinner’The Moral MovementA Modern Purification?To Conclude I: Mediation by the Holy Spirit: Transformation from Evil to PurityTo Conclude II: Melodrama and RitualsChapter 7. Opening up the Country. Christian Popular Culture, the Generation Trouble and TimeThe Difference between Existing and LivingThe Generation TroubleThe Healing Power of NarrativePast, Present and FutureTo Conclude: Youth, Christianity and DevelopmentChapter 8. Marriage comes from God. Negotiating Matrimony and Sexuality (Part I)Against Ethnic Endogamous Marriages: MayimonaIncest Reconsidered: The Devouring FireNegotiating Adultery: The Open TombConcluding Notes: Playing the GamesChapter 9. The Danger of Sex. Negotiating Matrimony and Urban Sexuality (Part II)Kindumba: Deviations from Accepted Sexual PracticesGod’s Men Making Meaning of SexOpposing MessagesWomen and Social Power: The Moziki Women and VedettesConclusion I: Negotiations about Matrimony and SexualityConclusion II: The Melodrama and the FeminineChapter 10. Closure, Subplots and CliffhangerThe Melodrama on and beyond the ScreenCultural Producers in an Apocalyptic SocietyThe Recovery of the SalonThe Next EpisodeBibliographyIndex