The USA or Europe? - Mexican migration imaginaries of the twenty-first century and the role of fiction

• Author(s): Retzlaff, Judith Vera
• Date: 2017
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/23094
• Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
• Subject(s): Migração; EUA; Europa; México; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Línguas e Literaturas
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Branco, Isabel Araújo
• Contributor(s): RUN

Description

In light of recent shifts in emigration figures from Mexico and the overall lack of engagement with the subjective dimension of the phenomenon, an analysis of the migration imaginaries presented in twenty-first century Mexican fiction sheds light on the cultural debate surrounding the issue within Mexican society. Highlighting the role of fiction for the creation of these imaginaries, a transmedial narratological framework devised for textual application permits the comparison of these representations both regarding their destinations – the USA or Europe – and considering medium-specific differences for the filmic (La misma luna and Guten Tag, Ramón) and the prose productions (Señales que precederán al fin del mundo and Méjico). The underlying question of the state of the master narrative of the American Dream and a possible European counterpart contextually guides this discussion of imaginaries both on the level of the story and the discourse. The findings from these two levels are, then, used for a comparative analysis with the aim of deducing the possible implications of fictional creations for migration and its societal stigmatisation. In that, the fictional material is considered in view of its real world impact and its ability to shape both migration imaginaries and societal structures.