Introduction: Framing exile: From homeland to homepage

As I began thinking about this introduction, I began wondering not only what to say but also what to call it. Introduction, opening, framing remarks …?Finally I decided on the last of these, “Framing Remarks.�? But as I began writing, the title gradually became “Framing Exile.�? Why? FraminB’ of course, means bracketing, structuring, constructing, or laying out the terrain of a topic-as in “providing a framework.�? This helps to define and differentiate one topic from another; it helps each topic stake a claim to its existence-an important strategy in alternative discursive formations. Framina also means delimiting the topic, boxing it in, predetermining it-as in “encasing the topic.�? This is something that my Ph.D. advisor, Teshome Gabriel, who has contributed an essay to this volume, had long ago warned me against doing, He’d say something like: “Don’t clearly define concepts like ‘third cinema’ because then they’ll be appropriated and dismissed.�? By that definition, framing can become a means of control and domestication, and the refusal to frame becomes an oppositional strategy. Further, as the dictionary tells us, framing could also mean prearranging or concocting with a sinister intent-as in a frame-up.