Pantomime Terror Diasporic Music in a Time of War

I find it increasingly problematic to write analytically about ‘diaspora and music’ at a time of war. It seems inconsequential; the culture industry is not much more than a distraction; a fairytale diversion to make us forget a more sinister amnesia behind the stories we tell. This article nonetheless takes up debates about cultural expression in the field of diasporic musics in Britain. It examines instances of creative engagement with, and destabilization of, music genres by Fundamental and Asian Dub Foundation, and it takes a broadly culture critique perspective on diasporic creativity as a guide to thinking about the politics of hip-hop in a time of war. Examples from music industry and media reportage of the work of these two bands pose both political provocation and a challenge to the seemingly unruffled facade of British civil society, particularly insofar as musical work might still be relevant to struggles around race and war. Here, at a time of what conservative critics call a ‘clash of civilizations’, I examine how music and authenticity become the core parameters for a limited and largely one-sided argument that seems to side-step political context in favour of sensationalized—entrenched—identities and a mythic, perhaps unworkable, ideal of cultural harmony that praises the most asinine versions of multiculturalism while demonizing those most able to bring it about. Here the idea that musical cultures are variously authentic, possessive or coherent must be questioned when issues of death and destruction are central, but ignored

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Gaius Balthar: Colonialism Reimagined in Battlestar Galactica

In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx notes that the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel had observed that “all the great events and characters of world history occur twice” (Marx 1852/2002:19). To this Marx added the wry observation that this repetition meant that the second time round things happened as farce. Few would disagree that this sentiment captures a key element of contemporary political drama. The U.S./British presence in parts of the Middle East seems to be a restaging of the old colonial script. The son follows the path of the father, not so much with a coup d’état as the ‘little nephew’ had followed Napoleon’s overthrow of the French Government in 1799, but where the ‘War-On-Terror’ repeats and expands the atrocities of the Gulf War, where the manufacture of the Al Qaeda threat caricatures the Evil Empire of old, where the spectre of ‘unfinished business’ (in Vietnam) haunts the regime and is used to restore a pyrrhic ‘pride’ in the armed forces and the nation. We note many examples where the repertoire of demons and scenarios is doubled in horrific yet untenable parallel: Most recently, in August 2007, George W. Bush went so far as to think of Iraq as a new Vietnam and used this as reason for never contemplating an end to the war

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

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

Proletarianization

This essay takes up the work of Bernard Stiegler to evaluate and critique his use of Marx and Engels’ notion of proletarianization in the context of new media, television, education and activism. The impact of technology and the notion of the general intellect is measured against Stiegler’s worry about a ‘short circuit’ that threatens humanity and requires a ‘new critique’. Talk of an ‘attention economy’ might be better understood if we deploy a wider Marxist notion of proletarianization in relation to class consciousness and struggle. Rather than a forlorn complaint about the ‘conspiracy of imbeciles’ and the ‘ruin’ of public education, a more careful reading of Marx offers proletarianization as a resource in a struggle that is - also but not only - a ‘battle for intelligence’. Keywords proletarianization, cretinization, technology, education, general intellect, critiqu

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

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

Bad Marxism: Capitalism and Cultural Studies

John Hutnyk.viii, 251 p. ; 23 cm

The Rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, Charity and the Poverty of Representation

A study of the politics of representation, this book explores the discursive construction of a ‘city of intensities‘. The author analyses representations of Calcutta in a wide variety of discourses: in the gossip and travellor-lore of backpackers and volunteer charity workers; in writing - from classic literature to travel guides; in cinema, photography and maps. The book shows how the rumours of westerners contribute to the elaboration of an imaginary city; and in doing so, circulate in ways fundamental to the maintenance of international order. A provocative and original reading of both Heidegger and Marx, the book also draws upon writers as diverse as Spivak, Trinh, Jameson, Clifford, Virilio, Bataille, Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari. As such it is essential reading for students and scholars in cultural studies, anthropology, development and sociolog