Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media

508 Pages·2014·19.31 MB·English

by  Ella Shohat

UNTHINKING EUROCENTRISM
An influential landmark in postcolonial studies, Unthinking Eurocentrism (1994)
explored Eurocentrism as an interlocking network of buried premises, embedded
narratives, and submerged tropes that constituted a broadly shared epistemology.
The debates about Eurocentrism and post/coloniality, the authors argued, must be
considered within a broad historical sweep that dates back to the various 1492s,
a process that culminated in the post-war seismic shift that radically decolonized
global culture. Ranging over multiple geographies, this transdisciplinary book
deprovincialized media/cultural studies through a “polycentric” approach, while
analyzing in depth such issues as postcolonial hybridity, antinomies of the Enlighten-
ment, the tropes of empire, gender and rescue fantasies, and the limitations of
“positive image” analysis.
The substantial new afterword in this twentieth anniversary edition charts recent
transformations of the intellectual debates, as concepts such as the “transnational,”
the “commons,” “indigeneity,” and the “Red Atlantic” have come to the fore. The
afterword also explores some fresh cinematic trends such as “indigenous media” and
“postcolonial adaptations” that have gained strength over the past two decades,
along with others, such as Nollywood, which have emerged with startling force.
Winner of the Katherine Singer Kovacs Best Film Book Award, the book has been
translated into many languages. This expanded edition proposes analytical grids
relevant to a wide variety of fields including postcolonial studies, literary studies,
anthropology, media studies, cultural studies, and critical race studies.
Ella Shohat is Professor of Cultural Studies at New York University. Translated into
diverse languages, her books include: Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices; Israeli
Cinema; Talking Visions; and with Robert Stam, Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality
and Transnational Media; Flagging Patriotism; and Race in Translation. Her awards
include Fulbright, Rockefeller, and the Society for the Humanities at Cornell
University, where she also taught at The School of Criticism & Theory.
Robert Stam is University Professor at New York University, where he has largely
taught at the department of Cinema Studies. He is the author or co-author of
more than 15 books, which have been translated, in their entirety or in part, into
17 languages. He has lived and taught in France, Brazil, Germany, Tunisia, and the
U.A.E. (Abu Dhabi), and has received Rockefeller, Fulbright, Guggenheim, and
Princeton’s Davis Center for Historical Studies awards.
Praise for the first edition
“I find Shohat/Stam’s work brilliant, exhilarating, original.”
Edward Said
“The extraordinary range of historical reference and critical polemic in this
comprehensive study clears the air around some of the smokiest debates of the day.
Shohat/Stam’s remarkably sane approach heralds a new and honest future for film
and media analysis.”
Andrew Ross, New York University
“If, as the authors argue, Eurocentrism is a ‘bad epistemic habit’, then this book is a
narrative of the work it takes to kick the habit. The authors’ unpacking of Euro-
centrism ... [puts] them among the tiny group of politically engaged intellectuals
who can tell (and write) the difference between multiculturalism that is simply liberal
pluralist ... and that which is a radical intervention into institutional and everyday
life.”
Wahneema Lubiano, Duke University
“Unthinking Eurocentrism defines [the] ideological, political and cultural challenges
facing an unequal world ... [moving] with great facility across continents, histories,
disciplines and cultural genres to illuminate both the pitfalls and the promises
generated by multicultural studies in a post cold war era. Shohat/Stam write with
unerring lucidity and a thoughtful and uncompromising commitment to social
justice: an insightful and engaging analysis.”
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Syracuse University
“At last, a book that slices through the murk of white supremacist obfuscation to
reveal with startling clarity the bare bones of Eurocentrist hegemony in popular
culture.”
Ward Churchill
“This first and crucial ‘World Cinema’ textbook alerted us all to cultural wars
fought with the weapon of style and theme.”
Dudley Andrew, ‘An Atlas of World Cinema’ in Remapping World Cinema
“... a monumentally comprehensive survey ... encyclopaedic in its scope.”
John Downing, Critical Studies in Mass Communication
“... a feast for anyone with an interest in cinema, cultural history and the signifi-
cance of the media in society.”
John Gabriel, Times Higher Education
“The range of historical examples, scholarship from around the globe, and the
authors’ incisive critique make this an invaluable resource for media scholars and
academics. Engaging current academic and popular debates, the book defines
directions for media and cultural studies at the beginning of a new millennium.”
Ilene S. Goldman, Jump Cut
“Shohat and Stam have given us the most comprehensive, indeed, electrifying
apologia for a polycentric, multicultural perspective and practice yet.”
Bill Nichols, Film Quarterly
“Shohat and Stam’s Unthinking Eurocentrism remains the most significant and far-
ranging intervention with a clear pedagogic intent.”
Bhaskar Sarkar, ‘Postcolonial and Transnational Perspectives’ in
The Sage Handbook of Film Studies
ColorSchemes byShuLeaCheang

SIGHTLINES
Edited by Edward Buscombe, Southampton Institute, and Philip Rosen,
Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, USA
Cinema Studies has made extraordinary strides in the past two decades. Our
capacity for understanding both how and what the cinema signifies has been
developed through new methodologies, and hugely enriched in interaction with a
wide variety of other disciplines, including literary studies, anthropology,
linguistics, history, economics, and psychology. As fertile and important as these
new theoretical foundations are, their very complexity has made it increasingly
difficult to track the main lines of conceptualization. Furthermore, they have made
Cinema Studies an ever more daunting prospect for those coming new to the field.
Sightlines maps out the ground of major conceptual areas within Cinema Studies.
Each volume is written by a recognized authority to provide a clear and detailed
synopsis of current debates within a particular topic. Each makes an original
contribution to advancing the state of knowledge within the area. Key arguments
and terms are clearly identified and explained, seminal thinkers are assessed, and
issues for further research are laid out. Taken together, the series constitutes an
indispensable chart of the terrain which Cinema Studies now occupies.
Books in the series include:
NARRATIVE COMPREHENSION AND FILM
Edward Branigan
NEW VOCABULARIES IN FILM SEMIOTICS
Structuralism, Post-structuralism and Beyond
Robert Stam, Robert Burgoyne and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis
CINEMA AND SPECTATORSHIP
Judith Mayne
GENRE AND HOLLYWOOD
Steve Neale
UNTHINKING EUROCENTRISM
Multiculturalism and the Media
Ella Shohat/Robert Stam
UNTHINKING
EUROCENTRISM
Multiculturalism and the Media
Second edition
Ella Shohat/Robert Stam
Second edition published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2014 Ella Shohat and Robert Stam
The right of Ella Shohat and Robert Stam to be identified as authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade-
marks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 1994
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Shohat, Ella, 1959–
Unthinking Eurocentrism : multiculturalism and the media / by Ella
Shohat and Robert Stam. – Second edition.
pages cm. – (Sightlines)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motion pictures–Developing countries. 2. Racism in
motion pictures. 3. Developing countries–Civilization–Western
influences. 4. Intercultural communication in motion pictures.
5. Culture diffusion. I. Stam, Robert, 1941– II. Title.
PN1993.5.D44S56 2014
302.23’43–dc23
2013048145
ISBN: 978-0-415-53859-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-53861-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77144-1 (ebk)
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