1st Edition
The Other in Contemporary Migrant Cinema Imagining a New Europe?
As a rapidly aging continent, Europe increasingly depends on the successful integration of migrants. Unfortunately, contemporary political and media discourses observe and frequently also support the development of nationalist, eurosceptic and xenophobic reactions to immigration and growing multiethnicity. Confronting this trend, European cinema has developed and disseminated new transcultural and postcolonial alternatives that might help to improve integration and community cohesion in Europe, and this book investigates these alternatives in order to identify examples of good practices that can enhance European stability. While the cinematic spectrum is as wide and open as most notions of Europeanness, the films examined share a fundamental interest in the Other. In this qualitative film analysis approach, particular consideration is given to British, French, German, and Spanish productions, and a comparison of multiethnic conviviality in Chicano cinema.
Introduction 1. Otherness in Contemporary European Cinema 2. Potential and Limits of a New European in Nicolas Echevarría’s Cabeza de Vaca 3. Migrants in Europe: Breaking the Boundaries? 4 . Inspiration from Abroad? Cultural Boundaries in Chicano Cinema Conclusion
Biography
Guido Rings is Professor of Postcolonial Studies, director of the Research Unit for Intercultural and Transcultural Studies (RUITS), and co-editor of German as a Foreign Language (www.gfl-journal.com) and iMex (http://www.imex-revista.com). He is author of 50 refereed articles, 7 volumes/special issues and 5 authored books, including La Conquista desbaratada (Iberoamericana 2010).
"This thought-provoking book gives valuable insight into the transcultural potential of contemporary European migrant cinema" -- Werner Delanoy, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
"A study of a key issue to rethink a new Europe. It is an analysis of the influence of our colonial past through contemporary migrant cinema and an exploration of the imagery from personal stories narrated on the big screen. A gift." --María Eugenia González Cortés, Universidad de Málaga, España
