Mixed Feelings in France

Critical analysis of the representations of mixed-race couples in popular comedies - honing the French universalist paradigm of colour-blindness.

While multicultural comedies criticise hegemonic whiteness and outdated stances on race relations, they simultaneously perpetuate the colonial aesthetic register by deploying a »republican gaze« - an ironic meta-narrative perspective on ethnic minorities. Ewelina Pepiak analyses how gender and ethnicity are represented in seven contemporary French comedies (2008-2018) including mixed-race couples, focusing on a trope of métissage (biological and cultural mixing) and white femininity. As analyses of ethnic and gender representations remain scarce due to the slow emergence of postcolonial studies in France, this study adds significant insights to the postcolonial debate.