Critique of Exotica

Hutnyk, John

doi:10.2307/j.ctt18fs31z

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…And just a cursory look at the ways in which contemporary South Asian expressive cultures are marketed in popular culture in the Westwhether in the form of a book jacket, an album cover, a theatre flyer, or billboard poster for a film or television show -finds these representations still configured to fit into these archetypes of the 'ghastly' or the 'beautiful'. Asian cultural works frequently appear in the West in highly exoticized forms -fetishized signifiers often based upon anthropological tropes of clothes, food, kinship and ritual (Hutynk, 2000). Thus the 'beauty' of South Asia is reduced to repetitious images of colourful saris, spicy curries, Hindu sages, exotic weddings and Bollywood dance routines.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Curry Tales’: The production of ‘race’ and ethnicity in the cultural industries

Saha

2013

Ethnicities

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Within popular culture in the West, stereotypical representations of ‘race’ still persist. This is particularly troubling when we find that it is racialized minorities themselves behind such representations. The aim of this article is to explore how the conditions of the cultural industries steer the work of minority cultural producers in directions that can undermine the radical potential of the counter-narratives of difference. The article begins with a discussion on the politics of representation where I argue for integrating a sociological approach into cultural studies of diasporic popular culture that pays closer attention to the process of symbol creation. The remainder of the article uses a study of a British South Asian theatre company to show how the increasingly commercialized cultures of production that characterize the sector had a troubling impact on the way a play exploring postcolonial feminisms was marketed and presented to the public.

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confidence: 99%

‘Curry Tales’: The production of ‘race’ and ethnicity in the cultural industries

Saha

2013

Ethnicities

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“…An example would be the celebration of South Asian culture in the UK through fashions of Henna hand painting, acknowledgement of Diwali and inclusion of Bollywood dancing in community events and television shows, whereas at the same time, excluding positive images of Muslims (Hopkins, 2009, p. 36). A concern of Hutnyk (2000, p. 30 & 116) was that within articulations of hybridity, “the new contexts remain conventional”, and that reflexive postcolonial hybridity talk and politics are simply the “flip-side of orientalism ‘at home’”. Despite these tendencies, hybridity has been discussed in postcolonial criticism in an effort to reclaim its meaning, to remove its negative connotations and re-articulate the term in a positive sense.…”

Section: Contemporary Hybridity Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hybridity as a concept is increasingly being challenged in terms of its applicability. Its reproduction in social theory without refinement has rendered the term a “rhetorical cul-de-sac” (Hutnyk, 2000, p. 36) and its longevity as an academic concept becomes ever more precarious.…”

Section: Contemporary Hybridity Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Esteemed, dismissed and everyday hybridity

O’Connor¹

2018

STICS

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Purpose This paper aims to respond to the circumstances that have made hybridity both a popular term in cultural analysis and a contested, problematic concept. It promotes the need to look at what has been dismissed in discussions of hybridity, namely, mundane and un-exotic examples of cultural mix. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a conceptual and interpretive approach to theoretical and empirical work that engages with the theme of hybridity. Findings The findings highlight how a celebration of hybridity has limited the ways in which the concept can be used for empirical work. It proposes the paradigm of everyday hybridity to work with practical examples of cultural hybridity. Research limitations/implications The implications are to decentre the Western bias that has theorised hybridity without exploring how the concept is relevant to other regions, such as East Asia. Originality/value The value of this work is in providing an audit of the concept of hybridity and a working paradigm for future qualitative research.

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“…In academia, arts and culture, notions of the subaltern and liminality are celebrated for their creative potential and often valorized as being the exemplary space of identity and culture (Hall, 1997; Hutnyk, 2000; Julien and Mercer, 1988). Yet this emphasis on the marginal and a politics of difference as reflected in the ‘experimental art and culture’ of Nitin Sawhney and Talvin Singh, largely, were inaccessible to the vast majority of people, who could arguably have seen the ‘marginal’ as a position they wanted to escape rather than embrace.…”

Section: ‘We’re Just Like Everyone Else’ – Identifying With the Majoritymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘We’re just like everyone else!’ Rethinking the cultural politics of the London Asian urban music scene

Kim

2016

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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This article engages with the practices of politics and its presence and meanings within the Asian scene. Despite work that has taken youth cultures beyond the framework of ‘resistance’, youth cultures are often still imagined and understood through the lens of ‘resistance’. Yet, within the Asian scene, the tensions, disavowal and ambivalence toward politics point toward a more complex, multilayered understanding of contemporary youth cultural forms. This article takes into account the politics of location and belonging that Asians within this scene are negotiating that are shaping the kind of political outlooks and attitudes that are being voiced. The growth of a middle-class ‘desi’ community in the United Kingdom and the rise of neoliberalism have led to a significant decline in the practice of a radical, deliberative politics within this ‘desi’ scene.

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Critique of Exotica

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

‘Curry Tales’: The production of ‘race’ and ethnicity in the cultural industries

‘Curry Tales’: The production of ‘race’ and ethnicity in the cultural industries

Esteemed, dismissed and everyday hybridity

‘We’re just like everyone else!’ Rethinking the cultural politics of the London Asian urban music scene

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