A critical thinking approach to globalization and culture. Filmic and literary representations

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to start a critical thinking analysis on how great is the impact of `globalization` on world`s business, culture, language and traditions, as we consider it significant and with implications affecting peoples` mentality, way of thinking and living. Everybody is talking about globalization: global network, global culture and heritage. But everyone is inclined to forget that every country has its own network, culture, heritage and its way of life. This idea of a great global culture is been imposed already by the economic powers, by countries such as United States or Germany. Less developed countries are unable to stop the spread of ideas of a global economy. Hence the global impact seems to be huge especially concerning African Countries, as Chinua Achebe describes in his book Things fall apart (1958). The Nigerian author describes in his novel how a simple but complex African culture is `globalized` by manipulation first and then force, by another country, a stronger one. At the same time globalization remains a challenge for the art of cinema. The theorists of globalization play a significant role in the world`s mindset but films are both narratively and physically dependent on location and thus people can have a better view of reality. One point of view of this reality is narrated in the film Babel (2006) directed by Gonzales Iñáritu, often cited as the first film on globalization.