BY ALAN CHEUSE Here’s an obscure moment, that when it first happened, seemed to me to be an example of I didn’t know what, but now shines through the fog as a precursor of some news to come: about ten years ago I served on a jury that decided one of the largest international literary [...]
BY RICK DAVIS In some sort of ideal world, language would not be a barrier to cultural understanding. Literature, scholarship, sacred texts, jokes, journalism, nuance and even subtext would flow across actual and virtual borders. Difference would be celebrated without being flattened out. Access to rhythms of words (and life), patterns of thought, hopes, dreams, [...]
BY TOM C. OWENS As the United States stood poised to take a more prominent political and cultural role as a world power at the turn of the twentieth century, debate raged over the formation and character of distinctively American artistic forms and traditions. Within the art or classical music tradition, this conversation was particularly [...]
BY PETER MANDAVILLE This is real life, engraved on my pages: families dying from starvation whilst the government’s worried about immigration. — Blind Alphabetz, ‘Concrete Landz’ Like everyone today, Young British Muslims are carrying around iPods full of the latest tunes. Despite the recent phenomenal popularity of a pop-oriented variant of nasheed devotional music—a key [...]
BY MICHELE GREET Traditionally, the field of Art History has focused predominantly on art produced in Europe. Over the past several decades, with the increased emphasis on globalism and multiculturalism, the field has expanded to include non-European regions. Consequently, Latin American art has begun to achieve long overdue recognition in both museums and academic institutions. [...]
BY LINDSAY IRVINE When Yetounde was but seven days old, Mandibou villagers sacrificed her to the fears and superstitions of the past; after only seven days of life, she became a victim of ritualized female circumcision. Had it not been for the intervention of a French missionary, Father Benoit, the dangerous procedure would have claimed [...]
BY TYLER COWEN When Hollywood penetrates global markets, to what extent is American culture being exported? Or is a new global culture being created, above and beyond its specifically American origins? There is no simple answer to this question. Critics of cultural imperialism make two separate and partially contradictory charges. Some are unhappy with the [...]