Race in translation : : culture wars around the postcolonial Atlantic / / Robert Stam, Ella Shohat.

• Author: Stam, Robert, 1941-
• TeilnehmendeR: Shohat, Ella, 1959-
• Place / Publishing House: New York : : New York University Press,, 2012.; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xx, 363 pages)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

While the term “culture wars” often designates the heated arguments in the English-speaking world spiraling around race, the canon, and affirmative action, in fact these discussions have raged in diverse sites and languages. Race in Translation charts the transatlantic traffic of the debates within and between three zones—the U.S., France, and Brazil. Stam and Shohat trace the literal and figurative translation of these multidirectional intellectual debates, seen most recently in the emergence of postcolonial studies in France, and whiteness studies in Brazil. The authors also interrogate an ironic convergence whereby rightist politicians like Sarkozy and Cameron join hands with some leftist intellectuals like Benn Michaels, Žižek, and Bourdieu in condemning “multiculturalism” and “identity politics.” At once a report from various “fronts” in the culture wars, a mapping of the germane literatures, and an argument about methods of reading the cross-border movement of ideas, the book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of the Diasporic and the Transnational.While the term “culture wars” often designates the heated arguments in the English-speaking world spiraling around race, the canon, and affirmative action, in fact these discussions have raged in diverse sites and languages. Race in Translation charts the transatlantic traffic of the debates within and between three zones—the U.S., France, and Brazil. Stam and Shohat trace the literal and figurative translation of these multidirectional intellectual debates, seen most recently in the emergence of postcolonial studies in France, and whiteness studies in Brazil. The authors also interrogate an ironic convergence whereby rightist politicians like Sarkozy and Cameron join hands with some leftist intellectuals like Benn Michaels, Žižek, and Bourdieu in condemning “multiculturalism” and “identity politics.” At once a report from various “fronts” in the culture wars, a mapping of the germane literatures, and an argument about methods of reading the cross-border movement of ideas, the book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of the Diasporic and the Transnational.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- 1. The Atlantic Enlightenment -- 2. A Tale of Three Republics -- 3. The Seismic Shift and the Decolonization of Knowledge -- 4. Identity Politics and the Right/Left Convergence -- 5. France, the United States, and the Culture Wars -- 6. Brazil, the United States, and the Culture Wars -- 7. From Affirmative Action to Interrogating Whiteness -- 8. French Intellectuals and the Postcolonial -- 9. The Transnational Traffic of Ideas -- Notes -- Index -- About the Authors