Date of Award

6-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Kate G. Willink, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Bernadette Calafell

Third Advisor

Darrin Hicks

Fourth Advisor

Frédérique Chevillot

Keywords

Cultural diversity, Eurocentricity, Fatih Akin, German cinematography, German multiculturalism, New European identity

Abstract

This dissertation addresses a complex cultural and social phenomenon: German multiculturalism in the framework of the European Union in the century of globalization and global migration. I use selected cinematographic works by Fatih Akin, currently the most celebrated German and European filmmaker, as cultural texts. This project illuminates cultural controversies, political complexities, and the discriminatory nature of German multiculturalism. Specifically, I show how and why the German society eagerly accepts and successfully integrates Italian immigrants, yet, culturally marginalizes and socially excludes the Turks. My work illuminates how complex historical and political processes of the past, guided by the principle of Euro-centricity, affect the multicultural dynamics in the German society. I also analyze Akin’s positionality as filmmaker, political figure, and a poster-child of contemporary German and European cinema.

This project invites critical re-consideration of the question of cultural diversity in Germany and in Europe and suggests transformative approaches towards multiculturalism. I use de-colonizing, critical cultural and critical feminist theories as well as art narrative with elements of performance ethnography for theoretical and methodological framework of my work. The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the on-going scholarly, political and cultural research in the fields of multiculturalism, identity, and politics of inclusion.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

179 p.

Discipline

Multicultural education, Cinematography, European studies

Download



Share

COinS