Nation in Motion: Film, Race and Immigration in Contemporary French Cinema

An examination of the current debates in France regarding national identity, secularism, and the integration of immigrants, notably from the former colonies. Course confronts films' and other media's visual and discursive rhetorical strategies used to represent ethnic or religious minorities, discrimination, citizens' resistance to government policies, inter-racial marriages, or women's rights within immigrant communities. By embodying such themes in stories of love, hardships, or solidarity, the motion pictures make the movements and emotions inherent to immigration tangible: to what effect? Taught in English. Films in French with English subtitles. Consent of instructor for undergraduates.