The fourth dimension in the work of Trinh T. Minh-ha: challenges for the anthropology or learning to talk close

Abstract

The work of filmmaker and femi-
nist, post-colonial theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha is
considered here in terms of the challenges it poses
for both visual anthropology and the discipline’s
project on a wider scale. Trinh’s work reflects de-
veloping trends in anthropology – especially in the
realm of the visual – in relation to both post-colonial
critique and the growing interest in new methods
for the production of knowledge about the world
which reject the cerebral rationality of older West-
ern anthropological theory in favor of more corpo-
ral, individual and sensorial means of understanding
human experience. However, I argue that the radical
nature of Trinh’s critique and her position outside of
the confines of academic anthropology result in ad-
vances in this direction in her work that go beyond
the limited attempts in the same vein currently in
development within the discipline. In this article I
explore this interface between Trinh’s work and such
trends in contemporary visual anthropology before
looking more closely at the outcome of her experi-
mental practice in one particular work, the Fourth
Dimension, Trinh’s penultimate film produced in
2001.