The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism In The Age Of Global Capitalism [Paperback]

Arif Dirlik (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813332494 | ISBN-13: 978-0813332499 | Publication Date: October 6, 1998

The essays in this volume range from questions of cultural self-representation in China to more general problems of reconceptualizing global relationships in response to contemporary changes. Although the new era of global capitalism calls for the remapping of global relations, such remapping must be informed both by a grasp of contemporary structures of economic, political, and cultural power and by memories of earlier radical visions of society. Without these two conditions, Arif Dirlik argues, the current preoccupation with Eurocentrism, ethnic diversity, and multiculturalism distract from issues of power that dominate global relations and that find expression in murderous ethnic conflicts.In lieu of multiculturalism, Dirlik offers “multi-historicalism,” which presupposes a historically grounded conception of cultural difference, seeks in different histories alternative visions of human society, and stresses divergent historical trajectories against a future colonized presently by an ideology of capital. Arguing that the operations of capital have brought the question of the local to the fore, he points to “indigenism” as a source of paradigms of social relations and relationships to nature, to challenge the voracious developmentalism that undermines local welfare globally.

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About the Author

Arif Dirlik is professor of history at Duke University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (October 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813332494
• ISBN-13: 978-0813332499
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,040,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a perfect cririque of post-colonial intellectualism, October 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism In The Age Of Global Capitalism (Paperback)

This book provides a timely and persuasive critique of the metropolitan (post-colonial) academism. It succseesfully links third world criticism with its long tradition while incorporating it to the contemporary global capitalism. It is a response of the critical left to "silencing past" by the post-colonials and seeking the ways to revitalize third world praxis in a new world of global wild capitalism which may not be felt properly from New York!