The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital

606 Pages·1997·44.95 MB·English

by  Lisa Lowe

THE POLITICS OF CULTURE IN
THE SHADOW OF CAPITAL
POST-CONTEMPORARY INTERVENTIONS
SeriesEditors:StanleyFishandFredricJameson

POLITICS
of CULTURE
in the SHADOW
of CAPITAL
Edited by LISA LOWE
and DAVID LLOYD
Duke University Press
Durham & London
I997
© I997DukeUniversityPress
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StatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments Vll
LisaLoweandDavidLloyd Introduction I
I. CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY 33
Dipesh Chakrabarty TheTimeofHistoryandtheTimes
ofGods 35
AihwaOng TheGenderandLaborPoliticsofPostmodernity 61
Reynaldo C. fleto OutlinesofaNonlinearEmplotmentof
PhilippineHistory 98
Maria]osefinaSaldaiia-Portillo !)evelopmentalism'sIrresistible
Seduction- Rural SubjectivityunderSandinistaAgricultural
Policy 132
DavidLloyd Nationalismsagainstthe State 173
II. ALTERNATIVES 199
ArturoEscobar CulturalPoliticsandBiologicalDiversity: State,
Capital,andSocialMovementsinthePacificCoastofColombia 201
GrantFarred FirstStop,Port-au-Prince:MappingPostcolonial
AfricathroughToussaintL'OuvertureandHisBlackJacobins 227
Homa Hoodfar TheVeilinTheirMindsandonOurHeads:
VeilingPracticesandMuslimWomen 248
Jacqueline Urla OutlawLanguage: CreatingAlternativePublic
SpheresinBasqueFree Radio 280
III. "UNLIKELY COALITIONS" 301
Interviewwith LisaLowe AngelaDavis: ReflectionsonRace, Class,
and GenderintheUSA 303
GeorgeLipsitz "FrantictoJoin ...theJapaneseArmy":
TheAsiaPacificWarintheLivesofAfricanAmericanSoldiersand
Civilians 324
LisaLowe Work,Immigration, Gender: NewSubjectsofCultural
Politics 354
Clara ConnollyandPragnaPatel WomenWhoWalkonWater:
Workingacross "Race" inWomenAgainstFundamentalism 375
IV. WORLD CULTURE AND PRACTICE 397
Jose Rabasa OfZapatismo: ReflectionsontheFolkloricandthe
ImpossibleinaSubalternInsurrection 399
NandiBhatia StagingResistance:TheIndianPeople'sTheatre
Association 432
Chungmoo Choi TheDiscourseofDecolonizationandPopular
11emory: SouthKorea 461
Martin F. Manalansan IV Inthe ShadowsofStonewall:Examining
GayTransnational PoliticsandtheDiasporicDilemma 485
TaniE. Barlow Womanatthe CloseoftheMaoistErainthe
PolemicsofLiXiaojiangandHerAssociates 506
Works Cited 545
Index 581
Contributors 591
VI Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project has been inspired by so many conversations and encoun
ters that it is impossible for us to acknowledge them all. Our learning
fromfriends,colleagues,andstudentsindifferentlocationshasbeenan
unceasing source ofencouragement. We hope that all those who have
in their generositywittingly or unwittingly assisted overthe years will
find The PoliticsofCultureintheShadowofCapitalafittingtribute.
ThisworkemergedfromoursympathieswithstrugglesintheUnited
States andworldwide: with theoppositionto the warinIraq, with the
decolonizingmovementsofEastTimor,Ireland,andSouthAfrica,with
thestrugglesagainstracismandstate-sanctionedwarsagainstmigrants
and minorities in Europe and North America, andwith those organiz
inglocallyandacross bordersagainstexploitationandpatriarchy. Our
hope is that this book will contribute in some way to the survival and
legibilityofsuchstrugglesandofthosewhohavededicatedthemselves
tothem.
The Politics ofCulture in the Shadow ofCapitalhas been from the
startanintenselycollaborativeeffort. Ourfirstthanksgo,ofcourse,to
the contributors. The work here is the product of their engagements
with one another: their willingness to offer, exchange, and receive cri
tique. So many of the contributors, including ourselves, have shifted,
rethought, andrevisedasaresultofbeingindialoguewithoneanother
andwiththeproject.Tothewritingoftheintroductionandtheshaping
of the book, they have all directly or indirectly contributed. Yet we
would also like to acknowledge Dipesh Chakrabarty, Donald Lowe,
andAihwa Ong,whoeach gave us particularly valuablecomments on
the introductoryessay. We also thankthose whoseworkinformedand
friendship sustained us throughout the vicissitudes of realizing this
project: Sandra Azeredo, Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Angela Davis,
Ann duCille, Yen Le Espiritu, Takashi Fujitani, Rosemary Marangoly
George, Luke Gibbons, David Gutierrez, Judith Halberstam, Elaine
Kim, George Lipsitz, ChandraTalpade Mohanty, Satya Mohanty, Mi
chael Omi, CamilloPenna, Naoki Sakai,Jose DavidSaldivar, Rosaura
Sanchez,andLisaYoneyama.
We have also received material and practical support that made it
possible to bring the many contributors together, some needing to
travel great distances. A University of California Organized Research
Group in the Humanities Grant permitted us to begin the work in
1992. William Simmons, Dean of Social Sciences at the University of
California, Berkeley, and Anthony Newcomb, Dean ofHumanities at
theUniversityofCalifornia, Berkeley,providedtheresourcesfor acol
loquium in 1994 at which the contributors discussed their work with
one another. The University of California Humanities Research In
stituteatIrvineofferedus accommodationsandmeetingspacefor that
colloquium; we thank the staff at the Institute for their cheerful as
sistance.WethankalsotheDepartmentsofLiteratureandEthnicStud
ies at the University of California, San Diego, and the Department of
English and Comparative Literature at the University of California,
Irvine:theirgenerosityandsupportgaveusayeartogetherinwhichwe
couldworkconsistentlyonthe bookandonourintroduction.
Ken Wissoker has been for us, as ever, an editor without compare:
weare grateful for his faith in the project. Morethan an editor, he has
been our friend. Finally, at different moments, we have had indispens
able practical help and editorial assistance from Grace Kyungwon
Hong, HelenHeranJun, EithneLuibheid, andChandan Reddy. Victor
Bascarawasthe "midwife"whoseknowledgeandpatiencewascrucial
in the last stages of manuscript preparation; Helen Jun compiled the
index. We thank them all not only for their labor but for their hUlllor,
intelligence, and friendship. Without them, The Politics ofCulture in
theShadowofCapitalmightneverhave beenrealized.
Adifferentkindofacknowledgmentgoestoourthreechildren: Sam
Pauwels Lloyd, Talia Pauwels Lloyd, and Juliet Lowe Nebolon; their
lovingpresencesrenewandsustainus.Tothemandtotheirfutures this
bookisdedicated.
We thank the publishers for permission to republish the following es
says, which appeared previously as follows: Aihwa Ong, "The Gen
der and Labor Politics of Postmodernity," Annual Review ofAnthro
pology 20 (1991): 279-309. Reynaldo Ileto, "Outlinesofa Nonlinear
Emplotment ofPhilippine History," in Reflections on Developmentin
Southeast Asia, ed. Lim Teck Ghee (Singapore: ASEAN Economic Re
search Unit, Institute ofSoutheast Asian Studies, 1988). David Lloyd,
"Nationalisms Against the State: Towards a Critique of the Anti
NationalistPrejudice," in GenderandColonialism, ed.TimothyFoley,
Lionel Pilkington, Sean Ryder, and Elizabeth Tilley (Galway, Ireland:
GalwayUniversityPress, 1995).LisaLowe,"Work,Immigration,Gen
der: Asian 'American' Women," in Immigrant Acts: On Asian Ameri
can Cultural Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996). Chung
moo Choi, "The Discourse of Decolonization and Popular Memory:
Vlll Acknowledgments
South Korea," positions: east asia cultures critique I, no. I (spring
1993): 77-102. Arturo Escobar, "Cultural Politics and Biological Di
versity: State, Capital, and Social Movements on the Pacific Coast of
Colombia," in Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics
and Social Protest, ed. Richard G. Fox and Orin Starn, copyright ©
1997 by Rutgers, The State University. Reprinted by permission of
Rutgers University Press. Jacqueline Urla, "Outlaw Language: Cre
ating Alternative Public Spheres in Basque Free Radio," Pragmatics
vol. 5,no. 2 (June 1995): 245-261.
Acknowledgments IX