Cultural Identity and the Image of the Diaspora in British Cinema
Abstract
The subject of the article is the change which took place in European cinematography towards the end of the last century, which meant greater attention directed towards the marginalised and the ethnic minorities. As noted by contemporary researchers (such as Andrew Higson), British films no longer present a coherent vision of the national identity. Rather filmmakers suggest that collective identity is something that is constructed, which is the argument present in films dealing with ethnic minorities and showing the everyday life of contemporary diasporas, particularly the Asian ones. The problem of a multicultural society, shaped by colonial past, has become in recent years a major challenge for today’s directors, as evidenced by the works of Stephen Frears, Gurinder Chadha, Damien O’Donnell, Metin Hüseyin and Sarah Gavron. The makers of these films emphasize that today’s territories are no longer closed, clearly separated from their neigh- bours, making it harder to distinguish between “our people” and “the other, the foreigners”, while national cultures no longer appear to be homogeneous, if only because they are based on cultural penetration and flow.
Keywords:
British cinema, ethnic minorities, multiculturalismReferences
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Authors
Krzysztof Loskakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, dyrektor Instytutu Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ; zajmuje się filmem japońskim i kulturą współczesną. Opubli kował pracę poświęconą Marshallowi McLuhanowi (Dziedzictwo McLuhana. Między nowoczesnością a ponowoczesnością /2001/), monografie Alfreda Hitchcocka (Hitchcock - autor wśród gatunków /2002/) oraz Atoma Egoyana (Tożsamość i media /2006/). Wspólnie z Andrzejem Pitrusem napisał książkę David Cronenberg: rozpad ciała, rozpad gatunku (2003). Wydał także Poetykę filmu japońskiego (2009), monografię Kenji Mizoguchi i wyobraźnia melodramatyczna (2012) oraz zbiór tekstów Adaptacje literatury japońskiej (2012).
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