Ethics After Idealism: Theory--Culture--Ethnicity--Reading

As literary studies moves into the fields of cultural anthropology, race studies, cultural history, and related fields, Rey Chow's "Ethics after Idealism" fills in these various gaps. The book itself spans the whole gamut from a review of the whole academic scenario in North American universities in the institutionalizing of departments and centres governed by the theme of "area studies", to gender-race issues in cinema and its extrapolations for literary studies, and comparative literary works and pieces of popular culture significant of Hong Kong in general. Rey Chow's interests are myriad, and it is interesting to see how she challenges some of the vital misconceptions of structuralist thought, such the binary between "fascist" and "pacifist", "technological" and humanized". In one of her illuminating essays, particularly "The Fascists Longings in Our Midst", she makes a lucid and sparkling defence for fascism as a tendency that humanity is generally in danger of making rather than an affliction of a few blighted individuals. This is an interesting foray into various areas of academic interest, between critical theory and cultural studies and literature from a comparative angle. It should interest undergraduate students of diverse interests and graduate students seeking to upgrade their awareness of the potential of the field of comparative literary studies.