Rebétiko: Class, Migration and Affective Structures in the Cinematographic Narration of a Musical Genre

The film Rebétiko (1983) narrates the life and career of a rebétiko singer, shedding some light on this particular socio-culturally marginalized, but historically significant group. By tracing the origins of this genre, the present chapter discusses the course of rebétiko music through the depiction of a film heroine, a powerful symbol in terms of social presence, cultural coalescence, and artistic contribution. As the movie focuses on notions of displacement and diaspora, it also raises questions about class, ethnicity, nationality, emerging identities, and dramaturgical aspects of the self (Goffman 1990) in Greek media culture, while challenging several gender-biased allegations about women in a male-dominated scenario. Since local specificity has already started to inform international discourses on phenomenology, gender mechanisms, and intercultural dimensions of performing history in filmography, this movie seems to adopt a critical lens towards social fragmentation that goes beyond Greece and permits the reconsideration of a living tradition which has international ramifications.