Inauthentic : the anxiety over culture and identity / Vincent J. Cheng.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cheng, Vincent John, 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnicity--United States.

Ethnicity.

Group identity--United States.

Group identity.

Authenticity (Philosophy).

Minorities--United States--Psychology.

Minorities.

Multiracial people--United States--Psychology.

Multiracial people.

Biculturalism--United States.

Biculturalism.

United States--Ethnic relations.

United States.

United States--Race relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (219 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Modern and contemporary cultures are increasingly marked by an anxiety over a perceived loss of authentic cultural identity. In this book, Vincent J. Cheng examines why we still cling to notions of authenticity in an increasingly globalized world that has exploded notions of authentic essences and absolute differences. Who is "authentic" and who is "other" in a given culture? Who can speak for the "other?" What do we mean by authenticity? These are critical questions that today's world--brought closer together and yet pulled farther apart by globalism and neocolonialism--has been unable to answer. Inauthentic compellingly probes these issues through revealing case studies on the pursuit of authenticity and identity. Each chapter explores the ways in which we construct "authenticity" in order to replace seemingly vacated identities, including: the place of minorities in academia; mixed-race dynamics; the popularity of Irish culture in America; the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland; Jewish American identity; the status of Jewish America in relation to Israel and Palestine; the cultural problems of international adoptions; and the rapidly changing nature of the Asian American population in the United States. Inauthentic combines the scholarly and the personal, informed argument and human interest. It will undoubtedly appeal to academic scholars, as well as to a broader reading audience.

Contents:

Intro

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Introduction: The Anxiety of Identity

Chapter 2: Who Can Speak as Other? Authenticity, Postcoloniality, and the Academy

Chapter 3: Inventing Irishness: Authenticity and Identity

Chapter 4: International Adoption and Identity: The Anxiety over Authentic Cultural Heritage

Chapter 5: The Inauthentic Jew: Jewishness and Its Discontents

Chapter 6: Asian American Identity: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly - and the Future

Chapter 7: Coda: Living Cultures

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-199) and index.

ISBN:

0-8135-5701-1

0-8135-3644-8

OCLC:

559630951