- Paperback: 428 pages
- Publisher: Indiana University Press (May 12 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0253219574
- ISBN-13: 978-0253219572
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 16.1 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #497,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"A provocative, original, and thoughtful writer, someone who addresses topics that are central to our culture from a fresh vantage point, and someone who is willing to challenge orthodoxies--right, left, and center--which prevent theorists of other stripes from seeing what's in front of their eyes." Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture
Product Description
Self reinvention has become a preoccupation of contemporary culture. In the last decade, Hollywood made a 500-million-dollar bet on this idea with movies such as "Multiplicity", "Fight Club", "eXistenZ", and "Catch Me If You Can". Self reinvention marks the careers of Madonna, Ani DiFranco, Martha Stewart, and Robin Williams. The Nike ads of LeBron James, the experiments of New Age spirituality, the mores of contemporary teen culture, and the obsession with "extreme makeovers" are all examples of our culture's fixation with change. In a time marked by plenitude, transformation is one of the few things these parties have in common. Although transformation is widely acknowledged as a defining characteristic of our culture, we have almost no studies on what it is or how it works. "Transformations" offers the first comprehensive and systematic view. It is an ethnography of the contemporary world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking analysis of the cultural landscape, Aug 26 2008
By Eric Nehrlich "generalist" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (Paperback)
I'm a big fan of Grant McCracken's blog, so I was eagerly anticipating his new book, which postulates that, as he titles his preface, "Entertainment is dead, long live Transformation". Instead of passively watching entertainment, people have become active consumers of the world around them, using ideas from all cultures to drive change within themselves. McCracken traces transformation possibilities throughout history, starting with tribal ritualistic transformations of rites of passage, passing through the industrial conception of working to improve one's social status by imitating the upper class, on to the 50s warring transformations of beatnik dropout culture vs. technophilic "brightwork" culture, and then to the postmodern transformations available to us today. We have moved from a world where one's birth determined one's destiny (sons of tailors became tailors) to one where we reinvent ourselves on an ongoing basis. McCracken takes the reader on a tour of several categories of postmodern transformations, including the capitalistic swift self and the Eastern-philosophy leaning radiant self. I highly recommend this book - it's so dense with new ideas and incisive observations that every few pages I would have to put it down and think for a while.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun to read, but lacking a persuasive thesis, Nov 17 2009
By Andrew D. Oram - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (Paperback)
I can't be as enthusiastic as the three earlier reviewers. WhileMcCracken has insightful analyses of trends in the arts, and I picked
up some interesting observations that he makes along the way to his
main thesis, I don't find his big picture--the justification for
writing the book--that compelling. For every current example of
transformation he gives, I could find an example of somebody doing it
centuries ago, and McCracken gives minimal attention to such
historical parallels. If more of that kind of transformation is going
on now, perhaps it's because there are more people alive, or more
wealth and leisure, or more freedom in all things. Finally, while I
was impressed with his breadth of scope, I sometimes thought he drew
his view too broadly and forced a lot of things into his thesis that
are described better with other frameworks.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Be someone else--but who? Maybe more than one "self", Jan 18 2009
By Test Maven - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (Paperback)
The author studies transformation as a contemporary phenomenon. This book is intended for academic audiences, but it's also a fun read.If you remember "Dress for Success" or watch "What Not to Wear," this book will grab you and keep you turning pages!
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