Books at Duke University Press

Alternative Modernities
Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar

376 pages (May 2001)
19 b&w photographs, 4 figures

Cloth - $84.95	0-8223-2703-1
[ISBN13 978-0-8223-2703-5]

Paperback - $23.95	0-8223-2714-7
[ISBN13 978-0-8223-2714-1]

To think in terms of “alternative modernities” is to admit that modernity is inescapable and to desist from speculations about modernity’s end. Modernity today is global and multiple and no longer has a Western “governing center” to accompany it. The essays in this collection, therefore, approach the dilemmas of modernity from transnational and transcultural perspectives.
The idea of “alternative modernities” holds that modernity always unfolds within specific cultures or civilizations and that different starting points of the transition to modernity lead to different outcomes. Without abandoning the Western discourse on the subject, the contributors to this volume write from the standpoint that modernity is in truth a richly mulitiplicitous concept. Believing that the language and lessons of Western modernity must be submitted to comparative study of its global receptions, they focus on such sites as China, Russia, India, Trinidad, and Mexico. Other essays treat more theoretical aspects of modernity, such as its self-understanding and the potential reconcilability of cosmopolitanism and diversity.

Contributors. Homi Bhabha, William Cunningham Bissell, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, Michael Hanchard, Beatriz Jaguaribe, Leo Ou-fan Lee, Claudio Lomnitz, Thomas McCarthy, Tejaswini Niranjana, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Shahzia Sikander, Charles Taylor, Andrew Wachtel

“Creative and vitally important. The authors don’t just note that modernity is more than a single, homogenous thing, they explore the fissures and fault lines and assess the implications for both scholarly understanding and public discourse. In doing so, they offer a hopeful and intellectually supple alternative to the often repackaged notion of a ‘clash of
civilizations.’ ”—Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council

“If ‘modernity’ is an invention of the North Atlantic, then so is the desire to escape, negate or transcend it. Going forward would seem to demand that we critically imagine the possibilities of alternative modernities. There is no question more important for cultural studies, or for progressive politics. This volume is a major contribution to this project. It needs to be read and extended.”—Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar teaches Rhetoric and Cultural Studies at Northwestern University and is Co-director of the Center for Transcultural Studies.

See Reviews

Table of Contents

On Alternative Modernities / Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar

Settler Modernity and the Quest for an Indigenous Tradition / Elizabeth A. Povinelli

Translation, Imperialism, and National Self-Definition in Russia / Andrew Wachtel

Shanghai Modern: Reflections on Urban Culture in China in the 1930s / Leo Ou-fan Lee

Adda, Calcutta: Dwelling in Modernity / Dipesh Chakrabarty

Miniaturizing Modernity: Shahzia Sikander in Conversation with Homi K. Bhabha / edited by Robert McCarthy

Two Theories of Modernity / Charles Taylor

On Reconciling Cosmopolitan Unity and National Diversity / Thomas McCarthy

Camera Zanzibar / William Cunningham Bissell

“Left to the Imagination”: Indian Nationalisms and Female Sexuality in Trinidad / Tejaswini Niranjana

Afro-Modernity: Temporality, Politics, and the African Diaspora / Michael Hanchard

Modes of Citizenship in Mexico / Claudio Lomnitz

Modernist Ruins: National Narratives and Architectural Forms / Beatriz Jaguaribe

Contributors
Index