In the late 19th and early 20th centuries more than 4 million Italians migrated to the United States of America, a Utopia at the time. The Legend of 1900, one of my favourite movies, which is adapted from Alessandro Baricco’s monologue Nocecento and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, depicts a story about a genius pianist 1900, who is an orphan, adopted by Danny a black coal-man from the boiler room, and whose parents are supposed to be Italian immigrants.
Due to the immigration law, 1900, who is a man without identity, visa, and any legal document, can never set a foot on the America soil. As a genius pianist performing music to amuse passengers, 1900 exists as a musician who can only live in a gigantic trans-Atlantic ship, Virginia. According to Michel Foucault’s idea about heterotopia, a ship is “a piece of floating space, a placeless place” as a vessel transporting people to their dream land. However, 1900, who is a legally unaccepted person, will never arrive Utopia by Virginia. He can only make a heterotopia, which is mirror of Utopia, a Utopia himself.
The Law makes 1900 an unacceptable person and Virginian a placeless place. However, just because of such law-made heterotopia and isolation of an individual, a genius is created. In this paper, I will illustrate how Virginian gives birth to a pianist and why 1900 at the end does not want to leave the ship to discuss the meaning of this movie and the relationship between law and space.
2021.
Breaking Boundaries: Reimagining Borders in Postcolonial and Migrant Studies. Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.