UC Irvine

"Fissures of modernity: labor force, gender, and (in)migration in Chicano and Mexican cinema and literature of the 20th century” analyzes how the narratives of the beginning of the century created work models adjusted to modern biopolitical governmentality. These narratives problematized the relation of workers to their workplace; and, in the case of women, perpetuated the ideals of the patriarchal system. Narratives adjusted to the expectations of capitalist accumulation fostered anxiety and ambiguous behaviors in workers who tried to comply with the narrative of the “worker-citizen.” The dissertations examine the experiences of (in)migrant workers across three chapters: “The Mexican labor imaginary in the United States” “Cinema and work: women in the workplace,” and “Labor crisis and fragmentation of the self.” The goal of the dissertation is to gain a more profound understanding of how labor practices intersect with gender discourses to produce divergent experiences for workers. This analysis can also help to shed light on the unique challenges and obstacles faced by (in)migrant workers and facilitate efforts to address and mitigate issues where marginalized working-class subjects are directly affected.