Moving on the Globe Issues of Mobility and Migration in a Globalized World As Depicted in Films of the 21St Century
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Moving On the Globe Issues of Mobility and Migration in a Globalized World as Depicted in Films of the 21st Century by Kynthia Arvanitidi A dissertation submitted to the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Faculty of Philosophy Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece In fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Thessaloniki 2017 Moving On the Globe Issues of Mobility and Migration in a Globalized World as Depicted in Films of the 21st Century by Kynthia Arvanitidi Has been approved May 2017 Supervising Committee: Yiorgos Kalogeras (Professor, School of English) Gregory Paschalidis (Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications) Christina Adamou (Assistant Professor, School of Film Studies) Department Chairperson Michalis Milapides To my parents and to those who travel In This World Eden Is West Promised Land Babel Code Unknown The Missing Star The Terminal My Sweet Home The World i TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iv Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 i. The Thesis’ Aims and Contents .......................................................................................... 1 ii. Globalization ...................................................................................................................... 9 ii. 1. The Beginning of Globalization ................................................................................. 9 ii. 2. Globalization’s Early Vision .................................................................................... 10 ii. 3. Approaching Globalization ...................................................................................... 11 ii. 4. The Global/Local Dichotomy and the “Glocal” ....................................................... 12 ii. 5. The global city as a process of flow and juxtapositions ........................................... 14 ii. 6. Theories of flows ...................................................................................................... 16 ii. 7. The Rich/Poor Division Remains despite the Flows ................................................ 18 ii. 8. The Function of Borders .......................................................................................... 18 ii. 9. The hospitality issue ................................................................................................. 20 iii. Postmodernism ................................................................................................................ 22 iii. 1. Postmodernism Subverts Eurocentrism .................................................................. 22 iii. 2. Postcolonialism ....................................................................................................... 24 iii. 3. Approaching Postmodernism .................................................................................. 25 iii. 4. Postmodernity is Characterized by Simulations...................................................... 27 iii. 5. Postmodernism and Mobility in Cinema ................................................................. 28 Chapter 1: Migratory Road Movies from the East to the West ............................................... 30 1. 1. The Road Movie Genre ................................................................................................ 31 1. 1. 1. The Cinematic Precursors of the Road Movie...................................................... 32 1. 1. 2. The Establishment of the Road Movie as a Genre in the Late-1960s .................. 33 1. 1. 3. Existential Irony in the Early-1970s Road Movie ................................................ 35 1. 1. 4. The 1980s Postmodern Road Movie .................................................................... 37 1. 1. 5. The 1990s Multicultural Road Movie .................................................................. 39 1. 1. 6. The European Road Movie ................................................................................... 40 1. 2. Migration Cinema - Hamid Naficy’s “Accented Cinema” ........................................... 43 1. 3. In This World (2002) ................................................................................................... 53 1. 3. 1. Documentary Influences ....................................................................................... 58 1. 4. Promised Land (2004) .................................................................................................. 63 1. 4. 1. Documentary influences ....................................................................................... 67 1. 4. 2. Feminist Perspective ............................................................................................. 68 1. 5. Eden Is West (2009) ...................................................................................................... 73 1. 5. 1. Inspiration by Homer’s Odyssey .......................................................................... 77 1. 5. 2. References to Road Movies .................................................................................. 77 1. 5. 3. References to Accented Cinema ........................................................................... 80 1. 5. 4. Postmodern Features ............................................................................................ 83 1. 5. 5. Representation of Paris ......................................................................................... 85 1. 5. 6. Political Comment Regarding Migration ............................................................. 87 1. 6. Postmodern Globalized Border Crossing - Transitional Places and “Third Space”..... 89 1. 6. 1. Border Crossing .................................................................................................... 89 1. 6. 2. “Thirdspace”-Transitional Places ......................................................................... 91 1. 6. 3. The Camp in In This World ................................................................................. 93 1. 6. 4. City vs Desert in Promised Land .......................................................................... 97 1. 6. 5. The Hotel in Eden is West .................................................................................... 99 1. 7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 103 ii Chapter 2: Migratory vs Privileged Journeys ......................................................................... 106 2. 1. “Network narrative” ................................................................................................... 107 2. 1. 1. “Network Narrative” and Postmodernism .......................................................... 110 2. 1 .2. Fragmentation in the Postmodern Era ................................................................ 111 2. 1. 3. Random Chance and Coincidence ...................................................................... 112 2. 2. Babel (2006) ............................................................................................................... 115 2. 3. Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys (2000) ................................. 119 2. 4. The Missing Star (2006) ............................................................................................. 124 2. 4. 1. Industrialization ................................................................................................. 125 2. 4. 2. East-West Relationship and the Role of the Language ...................................... 128 2. 4. 3. Binary Pairs, Postcolonialism and Postmodernism ............................................ 130 2. 4. 4. Exchange of identities ........................................................................................ 133 2. 4. 5. Openess towards the Other and towards Transnational Productions ................. 135 2. 5. The Landscape and the Tourist Gaze-Eurocentrism................................................... 138 2. 5. 1. Big Urban Metropolis vs Rural Province ........................................................... 138 2. 5. 2. The Tourist Gaze ................................................................................................ 139 2. 5. 3. Gazing at theLandscape in Babel ....................................................................... 141 2. 5. 4. Gazing at theLandscape in Code Unknown ....................................................... 142 2. 5. 5. Gazing at theLandscape in The Missing Star .................................................... 144 2. 5. 6. Is the Wetstern Gaze Released from Its “Superiority”? ..................................... 145 2. 5. 7. Eurocentrism Prevails in Babel and Code Unknown .......................................... 148 2. 5. 8. Issues of Eurocentrism and China as an emergent power in The Missing Star .. 151 2. 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 154 Chapter 3: Global Non-places ............................................................................................... 158 3. 1. Michel Foucault’s Heterotopias.................................................................................