Zoos Humains et Mises en Scène de L'Altérité Ethnique: My Big Fat Greek Wedding

This article interprets My Big Fat Creek Wedding as an instance of the "human zoo," that is, the type of display of "exotic" and "wild" peoples that marked the passage from the nineteenth to the twentieth century and proceeded to construct the notion of a difference between the West and its "other," establishing the racial and cultural superiority of the former. By using humorous stereotypes to signify difference, the film's narrative structure follows the principles of the human zoo. An analysis of the filmic devices used to place the spectator in the position of an observer exposes the limits of this ideological discourse, which promises to assert difference.