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Immigration and ‘Mythological’ Memory in French Cinema: How References to Homer and Ovid Refigure the European Perception of Exile

2017; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1780-678X

Sébastien Fevry,

North African History and Literature

This article examines how migratory experiences are configured in French authorial cinema using narrative models derived from ancient mythology, specifically looking at the films Eden a l’Ouest (dir. Costa-Gavras 2009), Film Socialisme (dir. Godard 2010), and Metamorphoses (dir. Honore 2014). More precisely, the focus is on a memorial resource little studied until now: the deeply rooted cultural memory based on mythological references to the Greco-Roman tradition. How is this ‘mythological memory’, often cast as foundational ‘European memory,’ useful in describing contemporary migratory experiences? The article suggests that recourse to mythological memory allows filmmakers to go beyond national contexts and paradoxically give a less Eurocentric dimension to the treatment of migrants’ narratives.