Ex-Centric Migrations: Europe and the Maghreb in Mediterranean Cinema, Literature, and Music

by Hakim Abderrezak

Overview

Ex-Centric Migrations examines cinematic, literary, and musical representations of migrants and migratory trends in the western Mediterranean. Focusing primarily on clandestine sea-crossings, Hakim Abderrezak shows that despite labor and linguistic ties with the colonizer, migrants from the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) no longer systematically target France as a destination, but instead aspire toward other European countries, notably Spain and Italy. In addition, the author investigates other migratory patterns that entail the repatriation of émigrés. His analysis reveals that the films, novels, and songs of Mediterranean artists run contrary to mass media coverage and conservative political discourse, bringing a nuanced vision and expert analysis to the sensationalism and biased reportage of such events as the Mediterranean maritime tragedies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253020659
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/20/2016
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hakim Abderrezak is Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Mediterraneans and Migrations in the Global Era
1. Disimmigration as a Remedy for the Illness of Immigration in Ismaël Ferroukhi's Le grand voyage
2. "Burning the Sea": Clandestine Migration Across the Mediterranean in Francophone Moroccan Illiterature
3. Southward Road Narratives: How French Citizens Become Clandestine Immigrants in Algeria
4. The New Eldorado in Mediterranean Music
5. Europe Bound: Shooting "Illegals" at Sea
6. Heading Home: Post-Mortem Road Narratives
Conclusion: "White Sea of the Middle" or "Wide Sea to Meddle In"?
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Discography
Works Cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

"Hakim Abderrezak convincingly illustrates how politically committed artistic practices serve to humanize the challenges of human migration, and in the process dramatically improves our understanding of the complex cultural, economic, political, and social realities that shape 21st-century existence."

Dominic Thomas]]>

Hakim Abderrezak convincingly illustrates how politically committed artistic practices serve to humanize the challenges of human migration, and in the process dramatically improves our understanding of the complex cultural, economic, political, and social realities that shape 21st-century existence.

Dominic Thomas

Hakim Abderrezak convincingly illustrates how politically committed artistic practices serve to humanize the challenges of human migration, and in the process dramatically improves our understanding of the complex cultural, economic, political, and social realities that shape 21st-century existence.

Editorial Reviews

Ex-Centric Migrations is crucial reading for scholars and students of contemporary Maghrebi, French, and Spanish literatures and cultures. It breaks new ground by encompassing the literature, film, and music of "return migration" and examining the trajectories of Maghrebi migration outside France.

H-France

Ex-Centric Migrations plunges the reader into a tour de force across radically divergent artistic responses to Mediterranean migration. Indeed, the book offers the additional benefit of critically engaging the burgeoning transdisciplinarity of Mediterranean Studies . . . In its fresh, long view of Mediterranean cinema, literature, and music, the book conveys, much like the primary sources it examines, a sustained reflection on alternative, ex-centric migrations.

Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies

"Ex-Centric Migrations is crucial reading for scholars and students of contemporary Maghrebi, French, and Spanish literatures and cultures. It breaks new ground by encompassing the literature, film, and music of "return migration" and examining the trajectories of Maghrebi migration outside France."—H-France

" Ex-Centric Migrations plunges the reader into a tour de force across radically divergent artistic responses to Mediterranean migration. Indeed, the book offers the additional benefit of critically engaging the burgeoning transdisciplinarity of Mediterranean Studies . . . In its fresh, long view of Mediterranean cinema, literature, and music, the book conveys, much like the primary sources it examines, a sustained reflection on alternative, ex-centric migrations. "—Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies

"Hakim Abderrezak convincingly illustrates how politically committed artistic practices serve to humanize the challenges of human migration, and in the process dramatically improves our understanding of the complex cultural, economic, political, and social realities that shape 21st-century existence."—Dominic Thomas, author of Africa and France: Postcolonial Cultures, Migration, and Racism

From the Publisher