Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T18:39:50.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Performing post-migration cinema in Italy: Corazones de Mujer by K. Kosoof

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Federica Mazzara*
Affiliation:
Department of Italian, University College London, London, UK
*

Abstract

Following consideration of the most common representations of migrants in Italian cinema, where they are often portrayed as victimised and minor subjects, this article analyses a film by Davide Sordella and Pablo Benedetti, Corazones de Mujer (2008) as a ‘post-migration alternative’. This film considers a different way of depicting ‘foreigners’, and addresses the complex issues of gender and sexuality as they emerge at the interface between Western and Arab cultures. Within the conceptual framework of Judith Butler's ‘gender performativity’ and Rosi Braidotti's ‘nomadic subject’, this article aims to suggest an alternative way of representing migrants in Italian cinema as agents of social and gender transgressions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andall, J., and Duncan, D., eds. 2005. Italian Colonialism: Legacy and Memory. Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Braidotti, R. 1994. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Butler, J. 1988. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal 40(4):519–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. 1999 [1990]. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Capussotti, E. 2009. “Moveable Identities: Migration, Subjectivity and Cinema in Contemporary Italy.” Modern Italy 14(1):5568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corazones de Mujer. Directed by Sordella, Davide and Benedetti, Pablo. Torino: Movimento Film, 2008.Google Scholar
Davis, R. G., Fischer-Hornung, D., and Kardux, C. 2010. Aesthetic Practices and Politics in Media, Music, and Art: Performing Migration. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Del Boca, A. 1992. L'Africa nella coscienza degli italiani. Miti, memorie, errori, sconfitte. Rome: Laterza.Google Scholar
Duncan, D. 2005. “Stairway to Heaven: Ferzan Özpetek and the Revision of Italy.” New Cinemas 3(2):101–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, D. 2008. “Italy's Postcolonial Cinema and its Histories of Representation.” Italian Studies 63(2):195211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, D. 2009. “‘Loving Geographies’: Queering Straight Migration to Italy.” New Cinemas 6(3):167–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forgacs, D. 2001. “African Immigration on Film: Pummarò and the Limits of Vicarious Representation.” In Media and Migration: Constructions of Mobility and Difference, edited by King, R. and Wood, N., 8394. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grassilli, M. 2008. “Migrant Cinema: Transnational and Guerrilla Practices of Film Production and Representation.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34(8):1237–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halberstam, J. 1998. Female Masculinity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Io, l'altro. Directed by Melliti, Moseh. Rome: Passworld, Pulp Video, Trees Pictures, 2007.Google Scholar
Ince, K. 2008. “Disunited Nations: Cinema Beyond the Nation-state.” New Cinemas 6(2):14742756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labanca, N. 2002. Oltremare: storia dell'espansione coloniale italiana. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Lamerica. Directed by Amelio, Gianni. Rome: Rai, 1994.Google Scholar
L'albero dei destini sospesi. Directed by Benhadj, Rachid. Rome: Filmalbatros–Rai, 1997.Google Scholar
Kuhn, A. 1985. The Power of the Image: Essays on Representation and Sexuality. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Loshitzky, Y. 2010. Screening Strangers: Migration and Diaspora in Contemporary European Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Naficy, H. 2001. An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Oxford and Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Healy, Á. 2007. “Border Traffic: Reimagining the Voyage to Italy.” In Transnational Feminism in Film and Media, edited by Marciniak, K., Imre, A., and O'Healy, A., 5972. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Parati, G. 2005. Migration Italy: The Art of Talking Back in a Destination Culture. Toronto: Toronto University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pummarò. Directed by Placido, Michele. Rome: Rai, 1990.Google Scholar
Saimir. Directed by Munzi, Francesco. Rome: Rai, 2004.Google Scholar
Triulzi, A. ed. 2005. Dopo la Violenza: Costruzioni di memoria nel mondo contemporaneo. Napoli: L'Ancora del Mediterraneo.Google Scholar