Cinematic Reverberations of Historical Trauma: Women’S Memories of the Holocaust and Colonialism in Contemporary French-Language Cinema
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CINEMATIC REVERBERATIONS OF HISTORICAL TRAUMA: WOMEN’S MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST AND COLONIALISM IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH-LANGUAGE CINEMA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Adela A. Lechintan, M.A. Graduate Program in French and Italian ***** The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Professor Judith Mayne, Advisor Professor Danielle Marx-Scouras Professor Jennifer Willging ii Copyright by Adela A. Lechintan 2011 iii ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes women’s retelling of history in French-language cinema during the last thirty years. It explores artistic creations by Chantal Akerman, Karin Albou, Martine Dugowson, Yamina Benguigui, Géraldine Nakache, and Hervé Mimran which draw on the memory of the Holocaust or colonialism and reveal how the repressed memories of deportation and colonization concurrently reverberate through generations. These filmmakers also show how the intergenerational transmission of trauma causes dislocations of already internalized images of the past and how women’s coping with historical trauma engenders women’s questioning of their own position in society and contributes to their identity formation. Using Michael Rothberg’s theory of multidirectional memory as a point of theoretical departure, my dissertation demonstrates how these artistic creations encourage the remembering of the Holocaust simultaneously with the recollection of colonialism as memories that intersect, enlighten each other, and facilitate intercultural communication. Adopting feminist film theory, I investigate how the six filmmakers assign a central role to personal and collective histories in their works while examining the status of women as agents in making and writing history. I suggest that, by re-appropriating hegemonic discourses, women bring new perspectives, such as gender and ethnicity, to the rewriting ii of history and that by retrieving images from the past, they gain agency. My research also reveals innovative cinematic and writing styles created by these film directors in order to represent female subjectivity and desire as tropes through which tensions between past and present are expressed and new spaces for multicultural identity negotiation are constructed. iii To my mother and my sister ***** In memory of my grandmother iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere respect and deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Judith Mayne, for her guidance, understanding, and support. I always feel so lucky to have benefited from her extensive knowledge and continuous enthusiasm. I would like to thank my other committee members, Professor Danielle Marx- Scouras and Professor Jennifer Willging for their advice and support. I am also grateful to Professor Wynne Wong for her encouragement and support during the years. I wish to express my warm thanks to my friends, Laura Luhan, Nicoleta Bazgan, Emilie Bécault, and Aurelia Bunescu, for their friendship and words of encouragement. I dedicate this dissertation to my mother and my sister. I thank them for their unlimited love and support. I am grateful to Tony Siefer for his moral support and encouragement during the preparation of this dissertation. v VITA 2000………………………………………………………...B.A. Babes-Bolyai University 2006………………………………………………….. .....M.A. The Ohio State University 2006-present….………………..Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Lechintan, Adela. “Entretien avec Yamina Benguigui.” The French Review 85.5 (2012). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian Studies in: Cinema in French, Holocaust / Women’s Studies..…………………..……..Judith Mayne Francophone Literature and Culture………………………….……Danielle Marx-Scouras Twentieth Century French Literature and Culture……………………....Jennifer Willging vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………..……......ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………..……….iv Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………..………….....v Vita………………………………………………………………………......…………...vi Chapters: 1. Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 2. From Forgetting to Remembering: Chantal Akerman’s Journeys into History…...…..18 3. Imagined Flashbacks: (Re)constructing the Past in Martine Dugowson’s Films..........59 4. Cinematic Space and Femininity: Displacement and Gendered Historical Discourse in Karin Albou’s Works……………...……………………………………………….….…91 5. From Nous to Je: Collective Memory and Multiethnic Femininity in Films by Yamina Bengugui, Géraldine Nakache, and Hervé Mimran …………………..…………….….133 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..……….169 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..……..... 175 vii INTRODUCTION When one looks at how the past is evoked and remembered in French-language cinema, one aspect which still draws attention and which has not been exhaustively explored by film critics and scholars is the specificity of women’s recollection and reconstruction of the past. Imagining and writing about gendered memories of the Holocaust and colonialism in French-language films has become a topic of interest to a number of filmmakers during the last three decades, as the issue of the preservation and transmission of women survivors’ legacy to future generations has also started to be explored in contemporary French-language films. These films have centered on stories of the Holocaust and colonialism, as events that have been widely recognized as two of the most important traumatic moments in the history of the 20 th century which echo throughout the years. In France, in particular, intersecting memories of these two challenging historical moments have constituted a complex background for the construction of a multicultural society. Remembering the Holocaust and colonialism has become a complex phenomenon which encompasses issues such as motivation, or the willingness to remember, and representation, or the reconstruction of the past. Images of past events offer a moral guide 1 for the present and future possibility of a multiethnic society. The revolutionary ‘mind- opening’ spirit of May 1968 brought about a greater openness toward spiritual and cultural freedom in France during the decades that followed. The 1970s are marked not only by an active feminist movement but also by a desire to reveal historical truth. For instance, by uncovering war crime stories, like Maurice Papon’s involvement in the Jews’ deportation in 1942 and in the massacre of Maghrebian demonstrators in Paris on October 17, 1961, historical trauma resurfaces through personal histories and becomes the focus of the media. In the 1980s and later, during the 1990s, French intellectuals and artists, as well as politicians, directed their attention to local problems rather than to international ones because of the end of the Cold War. France became more aware of its need to welcome cultural diversity. These tendencies and events are mirrored in the cinema of the time. A number of films have been made in France that address the repressed memories of the Holocaust and colonialism from the perspective of ethnic and gender differences which have been excluded from official discourses. By interrogating hegemonic historical discourses and questioning already internalized images of the past, filmmakers today look for various ways to point out discrimination, xenophobia, and other social problems by reviving the memory of past injustices. These filmmakers find an unlimited source of inspiration in history as a means to condemn abuses and suggest solutions to existing inequalities. With these considerations in mind, I undertake the task of investigating in this dissertation how the memory and history of the Holocaust and colonialism are 2 concomitantly reconstructed through film from a female perspective, and to demonstrate that the traumas of the two historical events concurrently reverberate through generations. The works that will be the subject of my dissertation belong to several contemporary French-speaking directors and focus on the exploration of the relationship between women, personal and collective histories, and official histories: Chantal Akerman’s News from Home (1977), Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (Meetings with Anna [1978]), D’Est (From the East [1993]), Yamina Bengugui’s Mémoires d’immigrés, l’héritage maghrébin (Immigrant Memories, the Maghrebian Heritage [1997]), Aïcha (2009), and Aïcha, job à tout prix (Aïcha, A Job At All Costs [2010]), Karin Albou’s La Petite Jérusalem (Little Jerusalem [2005]) and Le Chant des mariées (The Wedding Song [2008]), Martine Dugowson’s Mina Tannenbaum (1994) and Les Fantômes de Louba (Louba’s Ghosts [2001]), and Tout ce qui brille (All That Shines [2010]) by Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran. All these films, documentaries and feature films, draw directly or indirectly on the memory of the Holocaust or/and colonialism and focus on reconstructions of repressed histories and searches for identity. They engage with the re- writing of history from the point of view of the “Other,” which offers a new and demystifying reading of dominant, hegemonic discourses. These discourses, whether historical, political, literary, or cinematic narratives, offer a unilateral view on history from either racial, ethnic, or gender perspectives. The films studied here make known the filmmakers’ desire to reveal truths about women as historical subjects throughout the difficult moments of the Holocaust and colonialism. 3 In the