Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-sdd8f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-18T15:05:36.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Import/Export: Housework in an International Frame

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Anca Parvulescu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A close reading of Ulrich Seidl's Import Export (2007), a film on labor migration between eastern and western Europe, provides an international frame for revisiting the second-wave feminist debate on housework. In the last two decades, “women's work” has been outsourced transnationally on a large scale, leading to the emergence of an international private sphere inhabited by a new housewife figure. The feminist housework debate of the 1970s supplies the groundwork for a critique of autonomist neo-Marxism that foregrounds the role of language, translation, and visual gesture in the contemporary import/export of labor.

Information

Type
Special Topic: Work Coordinated by Vicky Unruh
Information
PMLA , Volume 127 , Issue 4: Special Topic Work , October 2012 , pp. 845 - 862
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by The Modern Language Association of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Works Cited

Akerman, Chantal, dir. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Criterion, 1975. DVD.Google Scholar
Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes towards an Investigation.” “Lenin and Philosophy” and Other Essays. Trans. Brewster, Ben. New York: Monthly Rev., 2001. 127–86. Print.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. “Exodus.” Critical Inquiry 20.2 (1994): 314–27. Print.Google Scholar
Anderson, Bridget. Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labor. London: Zed, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Atkins, Lisa. “Feminism after Measure.” Feminist Theory 10.3 (2009): 323–39. Print.Google Scholar
Bazin, André. “Umberto D.” Trans. Jim Hillier. Cahiers du Cinéma: The 1950s: Neo-realism, Hollywood, New Wave. Ed. Hillier, . Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1985. 180–81. Print.Google Scholar
Berardi, Franco. The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy. Trans. Cadel, Francesca and Mecchia, Giuseppina. Cambridge: MIT P, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Bosniak, Linda. “Citizenship, Noncitizenship, and the Transnationalization of Domestic Work.” Migration and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders, and Gender. Ed. Benhabib, Seyla and Resnik, Judith. New York: New York UP, 2009. 127–56. Print.Google Scholar
Boydston, Jeanne. Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic. New York: Oxford UP, 1990. Print.Google Scholar
Brodkin, Karen. How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Dalla Costa, Mariarosa. “A General Strike.” Edmond and Fleming, All Work 125–27.Google Scholar
Costa, Dalla, Mariarosa, and James, Selma. “Women and the Subversion of the Community.” Hennessy and Ingraham 40–53.Google Scholar
Dassanowsky, Robert von, and Speck, Oliver C., eds. New Austrian Film. New York: Berghahn, 2011. Print.Google Scholar
De Sica, Vittorio, dir. Umberto D. Story and screenplay by Cesare Zavattini. Criterion, 1952. DVD.Google Scholar
Dinner, Deborah. “The Universal Childcare Debate: Rights Mobilization, Social Policy, and the Dynamics of Feminist Activism, 1966–1974.” Law and History Review 28 (2010): 577–628. HeinOnline Law Journal Library. Web. 18 May 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ditmore, Melissa. “In Calcutta, Sex Workers Organize.” The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social. Ed. Clough, Patricia Ticineto. Durham: Duke UP, 2007. 170–86. Print.Google Scholar
Edmond, Wendy. “The Single Housewife.” Edmond and Fleming, All Work 42–44.Google Scholar
Edmond, Wendy, and Fleming, Suzie, eds. All Work and No Pay: Women, Housework, and the Wages Due. Bristol: Falling Wall, 1975. Print.Google Scholar
Edmond, Wendy, and Fleming, Suzie, eds. “If Women Were Paid for All They Do.” Edmond and Fleming, All Work 5–12.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Maid to Order.” Ehrenreich and Hochschild 85–103.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Hochschild, Arlie Russell, eds. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York: Metropolitan, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Elsaesser, Thomas. European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Elsaesser, Thomas, and Hagener, Malte. Film Theory: An Introduction through the Senses. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. London: Penguin, 1985. Print.Google Scholar
Federici, Silvia. “Wages against Housework.” Malos, Politics 187–94.Google Scholar
Folbre, Nancy. “The Invisible Heart.” Zimmerman, Litt, and Bose 211–15.Google Scholar
Freeman, Caroline. “When Is a Wage Not a Wage?” Malos, Politics 142–48.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Trans. Strachey, James. New York: Norton, 1961. Print.Google Scholar
Frey, Mattias. “The Possibility of Desire in a Conformist World.” Dassanowsky and Speck 189–98.Google Scholar
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. “From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 18.1 (1992): 1–43. JSTOR. Web. 18 May 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, David Theo, and Solomos, John. General introduction. A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies. Ed. Goldberg, and Solomos, . Malden: Blackwell, 2002. 1–12. Print.Google Scholar
Green, Malcolm, ed. Brus, Muehl, Nitsch, Schwarzkogler: Writings of the Vienna Actionists. London: Atlas, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Grissemann, Stefan. Sündenfall: Die Grenzüberschrei-tungen des Filmemachers Ulrich Seidl. Wien: Sonderzahl, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. “February 15; or, What Binds Europeans Together: A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in the Core of Europe.” Constellations 10.3 (2003): 291–97. Print.Google Scholar
Haidinger, Bettina. “Transnational Contingency: The Domestic Work of Migrant Women in Austria.” Women and Immigration Law: New Variations on Classical Feminist Themes. Ed. van Walsum, Sarah and Spijkerboer, Thomas. New York: Routledge, 2007. 163–82. Print.Google Scholar
Hall, Catherine. “The History of the Housewife.” Malos, Politics 34–58.Google Scholar
Hardt, Michael. “Guaranteed Income; or, The Separation of Labor from Income.” Hybrid 5 (2000): 21–32. HeinOnline Law Journal Library. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Hardt, Michael, and Negri, Antonio. Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. London: Penguin, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Hennessy, Rosemary, and Ingraham, Chrys, eds. Materialist Feminism. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. “Love and Gold.” Ehrenreich and Hochschild 15–30.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985. Print.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times. New York: Metropolitan, 2012. Print.Google Scholar
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierette, and Avila, Ernestine. “‘I'm Here, but I'm There’: The Meanings of Latina Transnational Motherhood.” Zimmerman, Litt, and Bose 254–64.Google Scholar
Huber, Christoph. “Ulrich Seidl's Song for Europe.” Cinema Scope 33 (2008): 24–28. Film and Television Literature Index. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Illouz, Eva. Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Matthew Frye. Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
James, Selma. “Introduction to The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community.” Hennessy and Ingraham 33–39.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Amy. “Manifest Domesticity.” American Literature 70.3 (1998): 581–606. JSTOR. Web. 18 May 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristeva, Julia. “Women's Time.” Trans. Alice Jardine and Harry Blake. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 7.1 (1981): 13–35. JSTOR. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Laporte, Dominique. History of Shit. Trans. Benabib, Nadia and el-Khoury, Rodolphe. Cambridge: MIT P, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Lazzarato, Maurizio. “Immaterial Labor.” Trans. Paul Colilli and Ed Emory. Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics. Ed. Hardt, Michael and Virno, Paolo. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996. 133–47. Print.Google Scholar
Leone, Vivien. “Domestics.” Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader. Ed. Crow, Barbara A. New York: New York UP, 2000. 516–20. Print.Google Scholar
Levy, Daniel, Pensky, Max, and Torpey, John, eds. Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe: Transatlantic Relations after the Iraq War. London: Verso, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Los Angeles Wages for Housework Committee. “Sisters Why March?” Edmond and Fleming, All Work 123–24.Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François. Libidinal Economy. Trans. Grant, Iain Hamilton. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Mainardi, Pat. “The Politics of Housework.” Malos, Politics 83–87.Google Scholar
Malos, Ellen. Introduction. Malos, Politics 1–33.Google Scholar
Malos, Ellen, ed. The Politics of Housework. Cheltenham: New Clarion, 1995. Print.Google Scholar
Marazzi, Christian. “Rules for the Incommensurable.” Substance 36.1 (2007): 10–36. JSTOR. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Marciniak, Katarzyna. “Foreign Women and Toilets.” Feminist Media Studies 8.4 (2008): 337–56. Ingenta Connect. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Margulies, Ivone. Nothing Happens: Chantal Akerman's Hyperrealist Everyday. Durham: Duke UP, 1996. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marx, Karl. Capital. Trans. Fowkes, Ben. London: Penguin, 1990. Print.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. Grundrisse. Trans. Nicolaus, Martin. London: Penguin, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
McClintock, Anne. “Maid to Order: Commercial Fetishism and Gender Power.” Social Text 37 (1993): 87–116. JSTOR. Web. 18 May 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McHugh, Kathleen. “One Cleans, the Other Doesn't.” Cultural Studies 11.1 (1997): 17–39. Taylor and Francis Online. Web. 18 May 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, Robert. Racism and Migrant Labour. London: Routledge, 1982. Print.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Juliet. From Feminism to Liberation. Cambridge: Schenkman, 1971. Print.Google Scholar
Moore, David Chioni. “Is the Post- in Postcolonial the Post- in Post-Soviet? Toward a Global Postcolonial Critique.” PMLA 116.1 (2001): 111–28. Print.Google Scholar
Neilson, Brett. “Globalization and the Biopolitics of Aging.” CR: New Centennial Review 3.2 (2003): 161–86. Print.Google Scholar
Ngai, Sianne. “The Zany Science.” Literary Criticism for the Twenty-First Century. MLA Annual Convention. Hilton, San Francisco. 28 Dec. 2008. Address.Google Scholar
Parvulescu, Anca. “European Kinship: Eastern European Women Go to Market.” Critical Inquiry 37.2 (2011): 187–213. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power of Women Collective. “The Home in the Hospital.” Edmond and Fleming, All Work 69–88.Google Scholar
Prado, Anayansi, dir. Maid in America. New Day, 2005. DVD.Google Scholar
Proust, Marcel. Swann's Way. Trans. Davis, Lydia. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Rabelais, François. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Trans. Screech, M. A. London: Penguin, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Roberts, Dorothy. “Spiritual and Menial Housework.” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 9 (1997): 50–79. HeinOnline Law Journal Library. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Rollins, Judith. Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1987. Print.Google Scholar
Romero, Mary. “Unraveling Privilege: Workers' Children and the Hidden Costs of Paid Childcare.” Chicago-Kent Law Review 76.3 (2001): 651–72. HeinOnline Law Journal Library. Web. 18 May 2012.
Sassen, Saskia. “Global Circuits and Survival Circuits.” Ehrenreich and Hochschild 254–74.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ulrich, dir. Animal Love. Image Entertainment, 1996. DVD.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ulrich, dir. Good News; or, Of Paperboys, Dead Dogs, and Other Viennese. 1990. DVD.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ulrich, dir. Import Export. Vivendi Entertainment, 2007. DVD.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ulrich, dir. The Last Real Men. 1994. Videocassette.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ulrich, dir. Loss Is to Be Expected. 2007. DVD.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ulrich, dir. Paradise: Love. 2012. Film.Google Scholar
Sembène, Ousmane, dir. Black Girl [La noire de …]. New Yorker Video, 1966. DVD.Google Scholar
Shih, Shu-mei. “Comparative Racialization: An Introduction.” PMLA 123.5 (2008): 1347–62. Print.Google Scholar
Treas, Judith. “Why Study Housework?” Dividing the Domestic: Men, Women, and Household Work in Cross-National Perspective. Ed. Treas, and Drobnič, Sonja. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2010. 3–18. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ukeles, Mierle Laderman. “Artist Project: Mierle Laderman Ukeles Maintenance Art Activity (1973) with Responses from Miwon Kwon and Helen Molesworth.” Documents 10 (1997): 5–22. Print.Google Scholar
Virno, Paolo. “Notes on the ‘General Intellect.‘” Marxism beyond Marxism. Ed. Makdisi, Saree, Cesarino, Cesare, and Karl, Rebecca. New York: Routledge, 1995. 265–72. Print.Google Scholar
Waldby, Catherine, and Cooper, Melinda. “From Reproductive Work to Regenerative Labour: The Female Body and the Stem Cell Industries.” Feminist Theory 11.1 (2010): 3–22. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Samuel. Benjamin-abilities. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Weeks, Kathi. The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries. Durham: Duke UP, 2011. Print.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Catherine. “Europa Europa.” Sight and Sound 18.10 (2008): 46–49. Film and Television Literature Index. Web. 18 May 2012.Google Scholar
Wolff, Larry. Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment, Stanford: Stanford UP, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Mark K., Litt, Jacquelyn S., and Bose, Christine E., eds. Global Dimensions of Gender and Carework. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2006. Print.Google Scholar