Migrant melodrama and the political economy of suffering
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4516901 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ana Elena Puga (The Ohio State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 72-93 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Women & Performance a journal of feminist theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0740-770X • E-ISSN: 1748-5819 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0740770x.2016.1183982 |
| OpenAlex | W2472462897 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 26 |
This article deploys the term “migrant melodrama” to describe contemporary cultural production that trains a melodramatic imagination on migrants. It argues that migrant melodrama often reconfigures suffering as a necessary step in the progress toward inclusion and belonging. To interrogate this assumption, the article analyzes three prominent examples of migrant melodramas that feature children traveling north across national borders without adult caretakers: the 2006 journalistic narrative Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother, by Sonia Nazario; a 2009 HBO documentary film inspired by Nazario’s book, Which Way Home, directed by Rebecca Cammisa; and the 2007 fictional film Under the Same Moon, directed by Patricia Riggen. The article proposes that migrant melodrama plays a role in the commodification and circulation of undocumented migrant suffering in a global market, a phenomenon that the author terms “the political economy of suffering.” Performances of suffering can be exchanged in the political economy of suffering for any number of privileges, from a handout to a visa, and are linked to major international economic and political decisions, such as migration policies that regulate human mobility across nation-state borders. The political economy of suffering is a web of transactions in which performances of undocumented migrant suffering are exchanged in attempts to promote empathy, tolerance of mobility, and respect for migrant human rights. In different ways, all three of the works analyzed accept the underlying logic of the political economy of suffering
Aesthetics · Art · Commodification · Economics · Economy · Literature · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Irish and British Studies · Law · Theater, Performance, and Music History
Motherhood and representation
Somebody’s Children
Melodrama Revised
The Politics of Affect and Emotion in Contemporary Latin American Cinema
Playing the Race Card
Perform or Else
Migrant melodrama and Elvira Arellano
Melodramatic Tactics
Riding la Bestia with Central American and Mexican Migrant Children Which Way Home . Directed by Rebecca Cammisa. Executive Producers
A Hierarchy of Innocence
The origins of totalitarianism
Mothering Across Borders
Helpless and Unfriended
Manifest Domesticity
The Cult of True Womanhood
Being En Route
The Beast
Crossing Mexico
Dwight Conquergood, Political Economy, Performance Studies
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |