SOCS 642
"Undesirable" Otherness: Cinematic Representations of Immigration in the European Union

Isolina Ballesteros

Course Description
The course examines cinematic representations of immigration, xenophobia, and racism towards ethnic and racial minorities in the social context of the European Union. It includes topics such as: social policies towards immigrants and refugees, criminalization of immigration, integration versus assimilation, the correlation between xenophobia/racism and political or economic nationalism. It focuses on the role of cinema as a cultural and ideological apparatus representing the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class. It uses a selection of recent European films as well as sociological, cultural and theoretical texts.
Required Readings
Course packet with selected theoretical and sociological readings (PIP Printing, Main Street, Middletown)
Films

Brothers in Trouble (1996) by Udayvan Prasad

Angst essen seele auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) by Rainer M. Fassbinder

Las cartas de Alou /Letters from Alou (1990) by Montxo Armendáriz

Flores de otro mundo/Flowers from Another World (1999) by Icíar Bollaín

Extranjeras/Female Foreigners (2003) by Helena Taberna

Inch’Allah dimanche (2003) by Yamina Benguigui

J'ai pas sommeil/I Can't Sleep (1994) by Claire Denis

Lola und Bilidikid/Lola and Billy the Kid (1999) by Kutlug Ataman

La Haine/Hatred (1996) by Mathieu Kassovitz

La promesse/The promise (1996) by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Dirty, Pretty Things (2002) by Steven Frears

Course Requirements

Some films will be screened in class. Digitized  films will be watched by students individually via internet connection.

Active preparation/participation in class discussions     30%
1 Oral presentation of film analysis                                     15%
Mid-term paper                                                                         25%
Final paper                                                                                30%

June 27

Introduction
The Idea of Europe: Xenophobia/Neo-Racism and Nationalism

“Racism and Nationalism”, “Class Racism” and “Racism and Crisis” by E. Balibar Strangers to Ourselves by Julia Kristeva: Chapters 1,5,8. 

Coming to terms with European Migration” by Douglas Massey et al.

"Benign Racism" by Ackermann; "Making and Unmaking of Strangers" and “The Stranger Revisited…” by Zygmunt Bauman

"Cinematic and Cultural Mediations" by Ella Shohat & Robert Stam

June 28

Race/Masculinity/Class
I. The Patriarchal Community in Exile: Pakistanis in Great Britain (the 60s)
                       
Film: Brothers in Trouble (1996) by Udayvan Prasad (in class)                       
Texts: "Race Prejudice: Britain Today" by Jeremiah Newman

June 29

II. Africans against the Wall (the 70s)

Film: Angst essen seele auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) by Rainer M. Fassbinder

Texts: "Immigration and Integration in Germany since 1945" by Bade; "Racism and Politics in West Germany" by Castles

"The Negro and Language" and "The Man of Color and the White Woman" by Frantz Fanon; "Fassbinder and Spectatorship" by Judith Mayne

June 30

III. Crossing the Gibraltar Strait: Africans and Arabs/"Moors" in Spain

Film: Las cartas de Alou /Letters from Alou (1990) by Montxo Armendáriz

Texts: "Immigration to Spain: Implications for a Unified European Union Immigration Policy" by Laura Huntoon; "The Role of Spain as a Gateway..." by Gil Bazo; "Screening African Immigration to Spain..." by Ballesteros

July 5

Gender/Sexuality and Immigration.
I. Caribbean Women in the Spanish Country and the Construction of the Interracial Family

Film: Flores de otro mundo/Flowers from Another World (1999) by Icíar Bollaín (in class)

Texts: “Metaphors of Home" by Floya Anthias; "Birds of Passage Are Also Women” by M. Morokvasic; "Female 'Birds of Passage' a Decade Later: Gender and Immigration in the European Union" by E. Kofman; "Female Birds of Passage: Leaving and Settling in Spain" by Ribas-Mateos; "The Position and Status of Migrant Women in Spain" by A. Escrivá

July 6

II. Documenting Female Immigration to Spain

Film: Extranjeras/Female Foreigners (2003) by Helena Taberna (in class)

Texts: “Gendered Actors in Migration” by Annie Phizacklea

“Migrant Women in Spain: Class, Gender and Ethnicity” by Solé & Parella 

"Embracing the Other: The Feminization of Spanish 'Immigration Cinema'" by I. Ballesteros

Mid Term Paper (4-6 pages)

July 7

III. France’s immigrant Algerian Women

Film: Inch’Allah Dimanche/God Bless Sunday (2003) by Yamina Benguigui

Texts: “A Peaceful Popular Racism” and “The Old and the New” by Ben Jelloun;

“Yamina Benguigui’s Inch’Allah Dimanche: Unveiling Hybrid Identities” by M. Fauvel

July 8

IV. "Queer" Immigration: (Im)migrant Subjects in the Cinema of Claire Denis

Film: J'ai pas sommeil/I Can't Sleep (1994) by Claire Denis (in class)

Text: “J'ai pas sommeil” by Martine Beugnet

July 11

V. "Queer" Immigration: the Turkish Diaspora in Berlin

Film: Lola und Bilidikid/Lola and Billy the Kid (1999) by Kutlug Ataman

Readings: “The Turkish Diaspora in Germany” by W. Chapin

“Subversive Bodily Acts” by Judith Butler “Boys Will Be Girls: the Politics of Gay Drag” by C. Tyler; “The Gay Absence” by Leo Bersani

“Cross-dressing Displacement/Assimilation: Gender Constructs and Performativity in J’ai pas de sommeil (1994) by Claire Denis and Lola und Bilidikid (1999)” by Kutlug Ataman” by  I. Ballesteros

July 12

Beur Cinema and Brotherhood in the Paris Outskirts

Film: La Haine/Hatred (1995) by Mathieu Kassovitz

Texts: “After the Riot” by Keith Reader and Review by Chris Barke

“Social Exclusion and Artistic Inclusiveness: The Quest for Integrity…”
by K. Zissermann and C. Nettlbeck; “Designs on the Banlieue: Mathieu Kassovitz’s La haine (1995)” by G. Vincendeau

“Daughters of France, Daughters of Allah” by Marie Brenner

July 13

The European Family against Otherness: Emblem of the Nation Oedipal Narrative and the Transnational Son/Europe

Film: La promesse/The Promise (1996) by Jean-Pierre y Luc Dardenne (in class)

Text; “Belgium’s Immigration Policy” by M. Martiniello

July 14

Europe’s Invisible Organs

Film: Dirty, Pretty Things (2002) by Steven Frears (in class)

Conclusions

Final paper