Culture, Multiculture, Postculture - Softcover

`Like the final bars of a symphony, the last chapter of this book is well worth waiting for: in it Kahn resolves many of the themes his five earlier chapters so provocatively raise.... But if this last chapter makes Kahn's book a must to read for those of us interested in the construction of "culture"... much of the pleasure in the book - like the pleasure in listening to good music - is in getting there.... the first chapter serves as something like an overture, critiquing cultural theory in the evolving post-colonial theorizing is in reality an extension of what he calls (after Taylor) a set of "expressivist" critiques of difference developed between the world wars. The second chapter is devoted to delineating the contours and roots of that earlier expressivist critique.... Kahn's purpose in the middle three chapters is the development of a series of variations on the themes laid out at the outset. He seeks to show how his expressivist critique has reached a crescendo during the interwar years, establishing a template for the critiques now associated with multiculturalism. He does this by examining how the notion of a universal "peasantry" came into being; how non-Western "others" were represented in both media and academic texts, and in the imagining of multicultural American cities. Kahn's discussions range from the ethnomusicology of Bartok... through to the architectural postmodernism of Charles Jencks... and the flourishing Jewish culture of New York in the twentieth century.... In each example... Kahn both provokes questions and answers them. And with each answer he raises yet more questions, all demanding some sort of resolution.... Like a well-constructed symphonic work, Kahn provides a series of greater and lesser moments of tension and release, a series of climaxes that both resolve and demand new developments, both throughout the book and in this final movement. Kahn ties his themes together and makes them say something new, something quite important. He shows many of the mechanisms by which "culture" comes to be made without having to resort to an ontological status for "culture" itself.... As with a particularly satisfying concert, for now, I am content to revel in the performance' - Ecumene

`Erudite, extremely readable, wide-ranging and timely... a stimulating and lively book' - Richard Fardon, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

What is culture? How is it different from multiculture and postculture? In this accessible book, Joel Kahn shows that the idea of difference is of fundamental importance in debates on culture, multiculture and postculture.

This innovative book examines a fundamental modern contradiction: the relation between greater cultural diversity and global capitalism. Arguing for a view of culture which is thoroughly grounded in history, the author looks at the way in which cultural distinctions shape our relation to reality and imagination. He illustrates his arguments with a rich array of sources from fiction to real life and represents the many-sided and ubiquitous nature of culture in social life.

Joel Kahn comments on the trend towards global culture, but he avoids the conceits of postmodernism by insisting that differences have not `withered away'. Instead, he shows how the forces of globalization have multiplied cultural differences and diversities.