Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Dance Music

Sanjay Sharma

ISBN 10: 1856494705 / ISBN 13: 9781856494700

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom, 1996

Blurring the boundaries between academic and cultural production, this book produces a new understanding of the world significance of South Asian culture in multi-racist societies. One of the first sustained attempts to situate such production within the study of race and identity, it uncovers the crucial role that contemporary South Asian dance music has played in the formation of a new urban cultural politics. The book opens by positing new theoretical understandings of South Asian cultural representation that move beyond essentialist ethnicity in the cultural studies literature. Contributors narrate the formation of South Asian expressive culture coming emerging from the highly charged context of UK Black politics. Part three assumes the task of historical recovery, looking at the antecedents of political South Asian musical performance, autonomous anti-racist organising and problems of alliance with the white Left. Part four engages with the movements and translations of cultural productions across the world - not just in Britain or South Asia, but also Canada, North America, Fiji, Malaysia, Australia, West Africa, Europe, but particularly in the fractured spaces of a postcolonial Britain in decline. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002040824

Synopsis:

Blurring the boundaries between academic and cultural production, this book produces a new understanding of the world significance of South Asian culture in multi-racist societies. One of the first sustained attempts to situate such production within the study of race and identity, it uncovers the crucial role that contemporary South Asian dance music has played in the formation of a new urban cultural politics.

The book opens by positing new theoretical understandings of South Asian cultural representation that move beyond essentialist ethnicity in the cultural studies literature. Contributors narrate the formation of South Asian expressive culture coming emerging from the highly charged context of UK Black politics.

Part three assumes the task of historical recovery, looking at the antecedents of political South Asian musical performance, autonomous anti-racist organising and problems of alliance with the white Left. Part four engages with the movements and translations of cultural productions across the world - not just in Britain or South Asia, but also Canada, North America, Fiji, Malaysia, Australia, West Africa, Europe, but particularly in the fractured spaces of a postcolonial Britain in decline.

About the Authors: John Hutnyk is currently Associate Professor in Sociology at Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam. In 2016 he was a Government of India GAIN scholar at Jadavpur University. Before that he was Visiting Professor at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. In 2015 he was in InterCultural Studies at Nagoya City University Japan, and since 2014 was Visiting Researcher at RMIT University in Australia, and also in 2014 at Mimar Sinan University in Turkey. He has held visiting scholar posts in Germany at the South Asia Institute and Institute fur Ethnologie at Heidelberg University, and Visiting Professor posts at Zeppelin University and Hamburg University, Germany. For fourteen years he was at Goldsmiths University of London in Anthropology and since 2008 as Professor of Cultural Studies. Hutnyk is the author of The Rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, Charity and the Poverty of Representation (1996), Critique of Exotica: Music, Politics and the Culture Industry (2000); Bad Marxism: Capitalism and Cultural Studies (2004); Pantomime Terror: Music and Politics (2014); and co-authored with Virinder Kalra and Raminder Kaur: Diaspora and Hybridity (2005). Contact at: JohnHutnyk@tdtu.edu.vn).

Ashwani Sharma is the Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Film and Screen Studies at the London College of Communication (LCC), University of the Arts London (UAL). Ashwani is a founding editor of darkmatter journal http://www.darkmatter101.org where he has edited a number of special issues including on the TV series 'The Wire', and 'Post-racial Imaginaries'. He is the co-editor of Disorienting Rhythms: The Politics of the New Asian Music (1997). He writes and performs poetry, has worked in the BBC and independent film in sound, and has been an aeronautical engineer.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Dis-Orienting Rhythms: The Politics of the ...
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom
Publication Date: 1996
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good