Reading Culture

The theory, methods and politics of culture studies are examined in this book which is concerned with the ways in which public culture reflects the relations between identities, race, gender and class. Adapting a range of theories and approaches, the author demonstrates how a cultural form effectively disseminates meanings - a political act - by marginalizing certain identities, norms, modes of thinking and knowledges while valuing others. The book covers topics as diverse as comic book superheroes to patriotic songs in Hindi films and from the projection of 'authenticity' in tourist brochures to the poetics of display in museums.