Date of Award
5-10-2026
Date Published
June 2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication and Rhetorical Studies
Advisor(s)
Kendall Phillips
Keywords
American Dream;Care Labor;Deservingness;Film Representation;Immigrantion;Latina Women
Abstract
This thesis examines how contemporary cinema constructs narratives of migration, care labor, and social mobility through representations of Latina caregivers. Focusing on two films, Knives Out (2019), directed by Rian Johnson, and Diários de Intercâmbio (The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student, 2021), directed by Bruno Garotti, the project explores how cinematic narratives shape cultural understandings of care work, migration, and the American Dream. Although these films emerge from different national industries and genres, both center Latina women navigating transnational labor arrangements and aspirations for social mobility in the United States. Drawing on scholarship on the global care economy, transnational cinema, and affect theory, this study investigates how film participates in constructing cultural narratives about who is seen as deserving of opportunity, belonging, and upward mobility. In particular, the thesis examines how representations of care labor intersect with racialized and gendered assumptions about Latina women as naturally suited for domestic and emotional work. While Knives Out appears to offer a progressive narrative in which a Latina caregiver inherits wealth and social mobility, the film ultimately reinforces a moralized version of the American Dream grounded in deservingness and affective labor. In contrast, Diários de Intercâmbio presents a more ambivalent and critical perspective on migration, aspiration, and the promises of the American Dream. Through rhetorical and visual analysis of narrative structure, characterization, and cinematic form, this thesis argues that contemporary cinema plays a key role in shaping cultural imaginaries of migration and care. By placing Brazilian and American films in conversation, the project highlights how cinematic narratives both reproduce and complicate the global hierarchies of race, gender, and labor that structure the transnational care economy. Ultimately, this study contributes to scholarship on media, migration, and affect by demonstrating how popular films teach audiences how to feel about care work, belonging, and the promises of mobility within globalized systems of labor.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Ferreira Leite, Débora, "Affective Labor and Deservingness in Global Care Economies: A Comparative Film Analysis in Brazilian and U.S. Cinema" (2026). Theses - ALL. 1007.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/1007
