Abstracts of Papers
Alexandra von Barsewisch:
Bordering on Images: Reflections on the Film The Garden of Eden by Maria Novaro
This short paper deals with cinematic representations of "border identities" in Tijuana, Mexico.
The Garden of Eden by Novaro is constructed explicitly around the border
and thematizes the "in-between" spaces of the borderlands (Anzaldua) with their political, economic and metaphoric implications on individuals on either side. Briefly, I will introduce two of the major characters of the film that, in my contention, move within pre-given and willingly or unwillingly chosen "border spaces".
The visual background, above all, documents the incompatibility of any presupposed "cultural wholes" (Welz) with actual cultural realities and
landscapes. Here, the site of the border could be seen as referring to what lies beyond, namely that center and periphery are no longer (and perhaps never have been) clearly distinguishable.
A version of this paper has been published in:
Picturing America. Trauma, Reality, Politics and Identity in American Visual Culture.
Antje Dallmann, Reinhard Isensee, Philipp Kneis (Editors). Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2007.
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