Beyond Dichotomies: Histories, Identities, Cultures, and the Challenge of Globalization (Explorations in Postcolonial Studies) (SUNY series, Explorations in Postcolonial Studies)

Beyond Dichotomies examines literary texts, cultural production, and concrete local practices within the context of modernity and globalization by focusing on the ways in which some societies confront the complexity of cultures reflected in new forms of knowledge, narratives, and subjectivities. The contributors explore how particular societies negotiate the relations between the global and the local, and use a geographical, comparative perspective combined with an interdisciplinary approach to offer a diversity of views and illuminate the cultural impact of globalization on different societies around the world: Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. These societies face complex questions regarding people's histories, identities, and cultures that embody the ambivalence, contradictions, and anxieties generated by the process of globalization. The contributors provide a compelling conclusion for a rethinking and reconfiguration of cultures and intercultural relations in today's global world in which dichotomized representations coexist with a discourse of globalization. Author Biography: Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Stanford University and the coeditor of Black Women in America: Social Science Perspectives. Beyond Dichotomies......Page 4 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Preface by Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi......Page 12 PART 1: Beyond Dichotomies......Page 28 1. The Perspective of the World: Globalization Then and Now by MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT......Page 30 2. Modernity and Periphery: Toward a Global and Relational Analysis by MARY LOUISE PRATT......Page 48 3. Beyond Dichotomies: Communicative Action and Cultural Hegemony by EMMANUEL CHUKWUDI EZE......Page 76 4. Mankind’s Proverbial Imagination: Critical Perspectives on Human Universals As a Global Challenge by MINEKE SCHIPPER......Page 96 PART 2: Contested Places, Contested (Self) Ascriptions......Page 118 5. Bringing History Back In: Of Diasporas, Hybridities, Places, and Histories by ARIF DIRLIK......Page 120 6. The Romance of Africa: Three Narratives by African-American Women by EILEEN JULIEN......Page 156 7. Ethnicity As Otherness in British Identity Politics by ROBERT J. C. YOUNG......Page 180 8. Reincarnating Immigrant Biography: On Migration and Transmigration by AKHIL GUPTA......Page 196 PART 3: Translating Places, Translating Ambivalence......Page 210 9. Warped Speech: The Politics of Global Translation by EMILY APTER......Page 212 10. National Identity and Immigration American Polity, Nativism, and the “Alien” by ALI BEHDAD......Page 228 11. Richard Wright As a Specular Border Intellectual: The Politics of Identification in Black Power by ABDUL JANMOHAMED......Page 258 12. Beyond Dichotomies: Translation/Transculturation and the Colonial Difference by WALTER D. MIGNOLO and FREYA SCHIWY......Page 278 CONCLUSION: The Unforeseeable Diversity of the World by EDOUARD GLISSANT (translated by Haun Saussy)......Page 314 About the Contributors......Page 324 A......Page 328 B......Page 329 C......Page 330 E......Page 332 G......Page 333 H......Page 334 I......Page 335 K......Page 336 L......Page 337 M......Page 338 O......Page 339 R......Page 340 S......Page 341 T......Page 342 V......Page 343 Z......Page 344 Beyond Dichotomies 4 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Preface by Elisabeth Mudimbe-Boyi 12 PART 1: Beyond Dichotomies 28 1. The Perspective of the World: Globalization Then and Now by MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT 30 2. Modernity and Periphery: Toward a Global and Relational Analysis by MARY LOUISE PRATT 48 3. Beyond Dichotomies: Communicative Action and Cultural Hegemony by EMMANUEL CHUKWUDI EZE 76 4. Mankind’s Proverbial Imagination: Critical Perspectives on Human Universals As a Global Challenge by MINEKE SCHIPPER 96 PART 2: Contested Places, Contested (Self) Ascriptions 118 5. Bringing History Back In: Of Diasporas, Hybridities, Places, and Histories by ARIF DIRLIK 120 6. The Romance of Africa: Three Narratives by African-American Women by EILEEN JULIEN 156 7. Ethnicity As Otherness in British Identity Politics by ROBERT J. C. YOUNG 180 8. Reincarnating Immigrant Biography: On Migration and Transmigration by AKHIL GUPTA 196 PART 3: Translating Places, Translating Ambivalence 210 9. Warped Speech: The Politics of Global Translation by EMILY APTER 212 10. National Identity and Immigration American Polity, Nativism, and the “Alien” by ALI BEHDAD 228 11. Richard Wright As a Specular Border Intellectual: The Politics of Identification in Black Power by ABDUL JANMOHAMED 258 12. Beyond Dichotomies: Translation/Transculturation and the Colonial Difference by WALTER D. MIGNOLO and FREYA SCHIWY 278 CONCLUSION: The Unforeseeable Diversity of the World by EDOUARD GLISSANT (translated by Haun Saussy) 314 About the Contributors 324 Index 328 A 328 B 329 C 330 D 332 E 332 F 333 G 333 H 334 I 335 J 336 K 336 L 337 M 338 N 339 O 339 P 340 Q 340 R 340 S 341 T 342 U 343 V 343 W 344 Y 344 Z 344 Annotation. Originating from a 1998 Stanford University conference of the same name, this volume explores how local communities negotiate the cultural impact of globalization. Mudimbe-Boye (French and comparative literature, Stanford U.) presents 12 papers that discuss the persistence of dichotomies of colonizer/colonized, center/periphery, local/global, premodernity/modernity, and similar examples in the face of the supposed homogenizing force of globalization. Representing a range of approaches and viewpoints the papers reflect on power-based binaries, questions of places and the construction of new identities, and the possibilities of moving beyond dualist representations of social reality Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Examines literary texts, cultural production and concrete local practices within the context of globalisation. Examines how culture in the broad sense, including responses to race, gender and class, affects the relations between peoples and individuals across cultures and geographical boundaries. Hardback edition ISBN 0791453839