“This is a unique book that is both theoretically lucid and draws together a very interesting set of seemingly incommensurable ethnographic examples and renders them comparable.” • Paul Manning, Trent University

“In its coherence and patience with dwelling on specific concepts and the optics of engagements with particular objects, the manuscript offers refreshing and trans-disciplinary insights into contemporary culture.” • John Borneman, Princeton University

Investigating the politics of seeing and its effects, this book draws on Slavoj Žižek’s notion of fetish and Walter Benjamin’s notion of the optical unconscious to offer newer concepts: “tinted glasses”, through which we see the world; “unit-thinking”, which renders the world as consisting of discrete units; and “coherants”, which help fragmented experiences cohere into something intelligible. Examining experiences at a Japanese heritage language school, a study-abroad trip to Sierra Leone, as well as in college classrooms, this book reveals the workings of unit-thinking and fetishism in diverse contexts and explores possibilities for social change.

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Subject: Anthropology (General) Cultural Studies (General) Theory and Methodology

Area:

LC: HM831 .D64 2023

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; SOC026040 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Sociology/Social Theory; SOC019000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Methodology