The Modernity Bluff: Crime, Consumption, and Citizenship in Côte d’Ivoire: Crime, Consumption, and Citizenship in Cte d'Ivoire - Softcover

Newell, Sasha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226575209 ISBN 13: 9780226575209

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2012

Synopsis

The Modernity Bluff In Cote d'Ivoire, appearing modern is so important for success that many young men deplete their already meager resources to project an illusion of wealth. The author argues that they engage a global hierarchy that is profoundly modern, one that values performance over authenticity - highlighting the counterfeit nature of modernity itself. Full description

About this title

Review:

"The Modernity Bluff takes its place comfortably with the best writing on African youth, cities, and popular culture - Cole, De Boeck, Mbembe, Nyamanjoh, Simone, Weiss, White - and gives an utterly original angle for understanding the cultural underpinnings of the current conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. Sasha Newell knows both the contemporary and classic Africanist literatures. He also brings to bear a considerable amount of specialist theory to explain the ways the performance of 'bluff,' seemingly a kind of consumerist simulacrum, can actually create something out of nothing." (Mike McGovern, Yale University)"

About the Author:

Sasha Newell teaches at the College of the Holy Cross.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0226575209
• ISBN 13: 9780226575209
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 318