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Cinematic Counter-Cartographies of Black and Brown Girlhood in the French Banlieue
Abstract:
<p>In the western world, Black and Brown girlhood is typically approached through frames of deficit and vulnerability related to their gender, race, and class, which are inseparable from the arguably dangerous and dysfunctional spaces they often inhabit. In this presentation, I focus on two recent French films, <i>Divines </i>(Benyamina 2016) and <i>Girlhood </i>(Sciamma 2014), that challenge narrow understandings of the spatiality of girlhood through the stories of teenage girls of African descent who navigate everyday life in the marginalized, isolated, and heavily stigmatized periphery of Paris. I show how the films provide cinematic counter-cartographies of Black and Brown girlhood in French banlieues. Specifically, I focus on three counter-cartographic contributions that the films and their main protagonists make: (1) <i>locating</i> the banlieue within relational space, (2) <i>navigating</i> the violence and suffering that comes with the racism, misogyny, poverty, and social exclusion embedded in the banlieue; and (2) <i>charting</i> what might be interpreted as “fugitive spaces” for self-knowledge, self-love, and healing through friendship. The latter emphasizes the importance of refusing what is and disengaging with oppressive structures, at least temporarily. I conclude with a discussion of how such practices of refusal and disengagement relate to the political notion of resistance as different forms of place-based responses to oppression and suffering.</p>
Keywords: Girlhood, Race, Gender, Urban Segregation, Cinema
Authors:
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli, San Diego State University; Submitting Author / Primary Presenter
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Cinematic Counter-Cartographies of Black and Brown Girlhood in the French Banlieue
Category
In-Person Paper Abstract