In Which Appadurai Gives Me Stuff to Talk About, BoredCaitlin

I can remember reading Appadurai at the beginning of the semester and being completely baffled. I finished reading the article in a confused daze and my only thought was, “what the hell did I just read?” (To be fair, Appadurai wasn’t the only theorist I had that reaction to.) Looking at it now that we’ve read so many theorists, it makes a bit more sense. I could understand what Appadurai is writing about and I was able notice connections to the other theorists we’ve discussed...

• “a new power was unleashed in the world, the power of mass literacy and its attendant large-scale production of projects of ethnic affinity that were remarkably free of the need for face-to-face communication between persons and groups.” (Appadurai 512)

Appadurai is writing about the influence of print materials here, but I feel like this could easily apply to the Internet and Henry Jenkins’ idea of participatory culture. The Internet has allowed people to make connections with people they’ve never seen in person, and it’s these connections that has allowed participatory culture to flourish.

• “if a global cultural system is emerging, it is filled with ironies and resistances, sometimes camouflaged as passivity and a bottomless appetite in the Asian world for things Western.” (Appadurai 512)

I feel like this quote applies nicely to Dorfman and Mattelart’s discussion of the United States’ influence on world culture at large, particularly Disney’s influence. Almost everyone in the world comes in contact with Disney at some point because it’s become so ubiquitous in our worldwide cultural consciousness. It’s a huge component in what Appadurai calls a “global cultural system.”

• “States find themselves pressed to stay open by the forces of media, technology, and travel that have fueled consumerism throughout the world and have increased the craving, even in the non-Western world, for new commodities and spectacles.” (Appadurai 518)

I feel like this quote connects nicely with our recent discussion of bell hooks and the commodification/fetishization of the “other.” Modern media technology has made it easy for us to access information about other cultures to fuel the “craving” for the new. At the same time, this craving has allowed media to repackage visions of the other for commodification and consumption.


There are definitely more connections to other theorists to be made here, but if I were to go through all of them, this would be a very long blog post.