Rating:  Summary: An Extremely Fine Work Review: I was both suprised and appalled to read the 1st review of this book. Clearly the author is one of the "anxious graduate students" that is referred to. Bhabha's writing is clear and engaging, and his thoughts and ideas fascinating. The depth of knowledge, combined with the profound ideas contained within, make this book one of the finest in its field, and mark Bhabha as one of the leading post-colonial theorists of his era and others too.
Rating:  Summary: Fantastic work Review: I, too, must take issue with the first review. This book has influenced all major scholarship in post-colonial theory since it was published, so I don't think it qualifies as trivial. Bhaba has many original suggestions about articulating, reading, and understanding the decolonized subject, and his ideas about the uses of time in narrative are fascinating. While it is true that the prose is difficult, it invites a second, third, and fourth reading. I did not understand it completely the first time I read it, but found the ideas compelling enough to return. My experience with this book has been extremely rewarding and productive. Others will find the same rewards if they are willing to spend the time. The book is not a sound byte. It is a long and poetic journey to the other side of the world and back.
Rating:  Summary: Trivial pursuits equal trivial rewards Review: I, too, must take issue with the first review. This book has influenced all major scholarship in post-colonial theory since it was published, so I don't think it qualifies as trivial. Bhaba has many original suggestions about articulating, reading, and understanding the decolonized subject, and his ideas about the uses of time in narrative are fascinating. While it is true that the prose is difficult, it invites a second, third, and fourth reading. I did not understand it completely the first time I read it, but found the ideas compelling enough to return. My experience with this book has been extremely rewarding and productive. Others will find the same rewards if they are willing to spend the time. The book is not a sound byte. It is a long and poetic journey to the other side of the world and back.
Rating:  Summary: Homi don't play that! Review: Let's get one thing straight. Homi Bhabhi is difficult to understand. However, I think everyone else who wrote reviews is wrong. Bhabha is the only post-colonial theorist who has an adequate grasp of historical dynamics in constructing identity, while remaining unafraid to problematize notions of historicity. I don't think the other people who reviewed this book understand that. I liked this book. But I liked his earlier stuff--EG Nation and Narration--a little better.
Rating:  Summary: I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than read this again Review: The fact that this book is influential is generally beyond argument. What astonishes me, however, is that so many people had the endurance to sit through the horrific writing; the author's style is obnoxious in the extreme. The first paragraph, for example, notes that the question of culture is the "trope of our times," characterized by "a tenebrous sense of survival." These concepts are not mind-bending. An everday, or as Homi would say, "colloquial" vocabularly would sufficiently articulate his thesis, yet he seems hellbent on packing his work with obscure language like he needs show off or prove something. Again, his ideas are influential, but he makes reading them as painful as possible.
Rating:  Summary: I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than read this again Review: The fact that this book is influential is generally beyond argument. What astonishes me, however, is that so many people had the endurance to sit through the horrific writing; the author's style is obnoxious in the extreme. The first paragraph, for example, notes that the question of culture is the "trope of our times," characterized by "a tenebrous sense of survival." These concepts are not mind-bending. An everday, or as Homi would say, "colloquial" vocabularly would sufficiently articulate his thesis, yet he seems hellbent on packing his work with obscure language like he needs show off or prove something. Again, his ideas are influential, but he makes reading them as painful as possible.
Rating:  Summary: An Orgasmic Experience Review: The location of culture was stimulating reading. It was helpful in reinforcing the idea that culture is not an easy concept in politics or anthropology. It illustrates how silly the idea of multiculturalism is in PC propaganda and editorial writting.Many words used in the text are not in my 100,000 word electronic dictionary. It would have been helpful if the book had contained more biography and down to earth discription of the author's life experiences.
Rating:  Summary: Obscure vocabulary and hidden politics Review: The location of culture was stimulating reading. It was helpful in reinforcing the idea that culture is not an easy concept in politics or anthropology. It illustrates how silly the idea of multiculturalism is in PC propaganda and editorial writting. Many words used in the text are not in my 100,000 word electronic dictionary. It would have been helpful if the book had contained more biography and down to earth discription of the author's life experiences.
Rating:  Summary: Award-winning opaqueness Review: This offering from Homi Bhaba is definitely in the running to win the grand prize for the most obstruse, deliberately arcane piece of academic prose in the past decade -- no mean feat. I agree wholeheartedly with the first reviewer, and anxiety-ridden grad students everywhere can take their first baby steps towards intellectual self-confidence and professional emancipation by admitting aloud what they silent know: this emperor is bucknaked and doing cartwheels down the boulevard.
Rating:  Summary: Not falling for it... Review: Two words. Bland and boring. Enough said
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