Culture, Multiculture, Postculture

What is culture? How is it different from multiculture and postculture? In this accessible book, Joel Kahn shows that the idea of difference is of fundamental importance in debates on culture, multiculture and postculture.

This innovative book examines a fundamental modern contradiction: the relation between greater cultural diversity and global capitalism. Arguing for a view of culture which is thoroughly grounded in history, the author looks at the way in which cultural distinctions shape our relation to reality and imagination. He illustrates his arguments with a rich array of sources from fiction to real life and represents the many-sided and ubiquitous nature of culture in social life.

Joel Kahn comments on the trend towards global culture, but he avoids the conceits of postmodernism by insisting that differences have not `withered away'. Instead, he shows how the forces of globalization have multiplied cultural differences and diversities.