THE REPRESENTATION OF GULF BETWEEN DIFFERENT CULTURES AND DESIRES - A CRAZY SPECTACLE, THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY

Globalization has made understanding of cultural diversity more important. However, one challenge caused by cultural diversity is the existence of cultural stereotypes since stereotyping can lead to prejudice and discrimination. Literary works and movies sometimes depict the stereotypes of certain race and ethnicity. Authors and directors embed similar negative features to them hence it becomes a justification that those races and ethnicities truly have such negative features. India being one of the most curious literary sites to the comparatists, due to its linguistic polyphony and cultural syncretism, it is like a dream of the West. Europeans often represent the Orient (Asian people) by negative features in their works. The aim of this paper is to examine the stereotypical portrayals of the Indians and the French in Lasse Hallströms The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) movie, based on an eponymous novel by Morais (2010), by using Saids Orientalism and Bals focalization theories. The researcher used qualitative-descriptive method in reference to Mikos (2014) movies analysis method. The finding reveals the director presents Indian and French in a contrast way in which one is regarded as inferior and the other as superior. Furthermore, it is also found that the relation between them is similar to the relations between the Orient and the Occident, which are argued by Said (1978) as a kind of relationship which distinguishes self and other, that is filled with power and domination. Moreover, all the stereotypical images are represented through French characters (character-bound focalization or internal focalization) which put Indian society as object of focalization argued by Bal (2014).