Stereotypes Of Transnationalism In 'L Auberge Espagnole'

Nowadays our world is constructed by globalisation and this aspect is especially depicted by the concept transnationalism in the media industry. Borders are now here to be crossed and to let access to further exchange between different countries or nations. The notion of transnationalism was furthermore developed by Andrew Higson (2000) focusing at the cinema. Indeed, he looked at tensions between the transnational and the national cinema. This led to a certain questioning of national identity and what is exactly a nation or nationalism and how can it be represented in a media text. Moreover, the concept of nation as ‘imagined communities’ developed by Benedict Anderson (2006) will be helpful to look at those tensions. In order to illustrate

As a matter of fact, their actions define them and reflect what nationality they are from because the director is drawing on the effect of stereotype. As Pedro Barnos (2011) argues, Cédric Klapisch in this movie offers a reflection on stereotypes and how they can affect people. Stereotypes are part of a national identity and even tough to some extent they tend to reduce such identity to some primal details. They reveal in some way how transnationalism works. Indeed, the stereotypes used in this movie are essentially the vision a foreigner will have about a person living across its own border. This aspect was especially represented by the character of William, brother of Wendy, in the movie who seems to have preconceived ideas about all nationalities, assimilating Tobias the German student with Hitler for instance. However, as Caroline Eades (2005) explains it, Klapisch uses the stereotypes without alienating too much the character to the audience, keeping it very realistic and it is one of the strength of this movie. In the movie, the language to some extent defines a person. When William imitates Xavier he does it by using stereotype of the French language. Furthermore, the director addresses some issues arising from tensions between those stereotypes and national identities. In a specific scene, some students argues about the fact that Spain, especially Barcelona, is not something that can be reduced to words such as ‘Olé’ or some dance like the flamenco, Catalan is part of their identity as well. Pedro Barnos (2011) argues that this scene tries to explore stereotypes in a positive and inclusive way, which sets the tone for the movie’s general approach to the idea of diversity and integration’(p.6). Barcelonian citizens, have both Spanish and Catalan identities. One