We found love in a hopeless place: Exilic agency and translingual practice in Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea

Abstract

Jonas Carpignano’s film Mediterranea is a complex and nuanced portrait of contemporary transnational migration, with a focus on exilic agency. Translingual practice is an essential part of the biographical narration of the film, which centres on the protagonist, Ayiva. This chapter proposes a reading of translingual practice in Mediterranea through the lens of recent sociolinguistic theory, which focuses on the interaction of agency, spatial setting and material context. The analyses indicate that Ayiva’s translingual practice is crucial to the representation of his agency, as well as to the critical potential of the film.