Identity Anecdotes
Translation and Media Culture
- Meaghan Morris - Australian National University, Australia
How is identity produced in global 'textual environments'? What forms of narrative generate solidarity in a world in which globalization and trans-nationality can often appear to be a fait accompli?
This brilliant, coruscating book, written by one of the most formidable and original thinkers in Cultural Studies, examines questions of nationality, identity, the use of anecdote to build solidarity and the role of institutions in shaping culture. Ranging across many fields, including film and media, gender, nationality, globalization and popular culture, it provides a mind-clearing exercise in recognizing what culture is, and how it works, today. Illustrated with a fund of relevant and insightful examples, it addresses the central questions in cultural studies today: identity, post-identity, the uses of narrative and textual analysis, the industrial organization of solidarity and the opportunities and dilemmas of globalization.
Penetrating, arresting and inimitable, the book is a major contribution to the field of Cultural Studies. It will be of interest to students of Cultural Studies, Media, Film and Cultural Sociology.
`Reading Meaghan Morris is like trekking on a meandering path through dense forests and over steep hills, making us pause at startling finds and taking us through unsurpassed vistas of insight and knowledge. Morris takes no shortcuts and leads us through places that may seem eccentric, but the experience is immensely rewarding for those who appreciate that serious intellectual work today demands addressing hard questions with intense dedication and patience for detail, not the easy way out of premature generalisations and sweeping statements.
Meticulously attentive to the complex nuances and intricacies of what is too easily glossed as ‘cross-cultural communication’ in the front lines of global intellectual exchange, these essays offer us a unique, writerly perspective on what it takes, socially and textually, to reconcile the requirements of an effective shared discourse – cultural studies – with the intrinsic heterogeneity of our divergent glocal realities.
Written with the razor-sharp precision, arresting wit and erudite acumen that are quintessential Meaghan Morris, Identity Anecdotes is an awesomely satisfying and enlightening read. It is also testimony to a fearless generosity of spirit that we need more than ever in our increasingly fraught and fractious world' - Ien Ang, University of Western Sydney
"It is an eclectic collection of essays, written between 1998 and 1999, which are all more or less obliquely concerned with questions of Australian culture and history. It offers a virtuosic demonstration of the capacities of theoretically informed cultural and historical criticism."
