Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity [Paperback]

Nestor Garcia Canclini (Author), Silvia L. Lopez (Author), Nestor Garcia Canclini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995 | ISBN-10: 0816623155 | ISBN-13: 978-0816623150 | Edition: 1St Edition

When it was originally published, Hybrid Cultures was foundational to Latin American cultural studies. This now-classic work features a new introduction in which Nestor Garcia Canclini calls for a cultural politics to contain the damaging effects of globalization and responds to relevant theoretical developments over the past decade. Garcia Canclini questions whether Latin America can compete in a global marketplace without losing its cultural identity. He moves with ease from the ideas of Gramsci and Foucault to economic analysis, from appraisals of the exchanges between Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges to Chicano film and grafitti. Hybrid Cultures at once clarifies the development of democratic institutions in Latin America and reveals that the most destructive ideological trends are still going strong.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

When it was originally published, Hybrid Cultures was foundational to Latin American cultural studies. This now-classic work features a new introduction in which Nestor Garcia Canclini calls for a cultural politics to contain the damaging effects of globalization and responds to relevant theoretical developments over the past decade. Garcia Canclini questions whether Latin America can compete in a global marketplace without losing its cultural identity. He moves with ease from the ideas of Gramsci and Foucault to economic analysis, from appraisals of the exchanges between Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges to Chicano film and grafitti. Hybrid Cultures at once clarifies the development of democratic institutions in Latin America and reveals that the most destructive ideological trends are still going strong.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press; 1St Edition edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816623155
• ISBN-13: 978-0816623150
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,658,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernities, August 25, 2010

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Lee L'Clerc (Parry Sound, Ontario, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity (Paperback)

Nelson García Canclini's Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, originally published in 1989 as, Culturas híbridas: Estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad, mirrors a certain period, the XX century, and a few countries. This is not a book about hybrid cultures and modernism in Latin America, but about hybridization and modernity mainly in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, with a few references to Colombia, Perú, and Venezuela. García Canclini speaks of transculturation and hybrid cultures, yet he doesn't bother to acknowledge, for example, the work of the Cuban writer Fernando Ortiz, who coined the term, not thinks of considering the hybrid cultures in the Caribbean. About the Caribbean, there are two passing references to Cuba's music and Santeria, and not a single mentioning to any of its writers and artists: Wifredo Lam? Alejo Carpentier? Nicolas Guillen?--they must be Belgian.
With the exception of the chapter on "Latin American Contradictions: Modernism without Modernization?", the other chapters appear to be grounded on the opinions of others. Ironically, for a writer that at times is critical of Latin Americans for seeking their ideas elsewhere, or for appropriating early XX century European movements, N. García Canclini is very much indebted to European and North American scholars. The title of the book should be: Hybrid Cultures: A Study of Modernity in Mexico, with References to Brazil and Argentina.