Non-places and separated worlds: Rodrigo Pla’s film La Zona

Pablo Rolando Cristoffanini

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    Abstract

    The proliferation of non-places is an important feature of supermodernity (Marc Auge) or liquid modernity (Zygmunt Bauman). This article argues that gated communities can be studied as non-places compared to the old cities of Latin America with public and democratic spaces such as the street, the plaza and the church. The analysis is based on Auge’s concept of the non-place as an important spatial change in supermodernity. Theoretical inspiration is also found in Bauman’s notion of cities as microcosms in which we catch a glimpse of phenomena such as fear, insecurity, alienation, mixophobia, militarization and privatization. The article’s central thesis is that film is a major source of condensed knowledge about significant social and cultural issues in late modernity. I examine the portrayal of a gated community in Mexico City given by Rodrigo Pla’s film La Zona (2006). The analysis of the narrative, characters and selected rhetorical figures enables the identification and disclosure of the portrayed discourses and ideologies that serve to legitimize segregation and mixophobia. The film’s utopian aspects about ways of coping with segregation and mixophobia are also discussed
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationNon-place : Representing Placelessness in Literature, Media and Culture
    EditorsMirjam Gebauer, Helle Thorsøe Nielsen, Jan T. Schlosser, Bent Sørensen
    Volume7
    PublisherAalborg Universitetsforlag
    Publication date2015
    Pages145-170
    ISBN (Print)978-87-7112-217-6
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    SeriesInterdisciplinære kulturstudier
    ISSN1904-898X

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