Situating the Multipositionality and Cultural Circuity of James Clifford

The recent book by James Clifford, Returns, claims to be the third of a trilogy that began with The Predicament of Culture (1987) and continued with Routes (1998).  The first volume marked a certain prostmodern intervention into anthropological writing by invoking multivocalilty and authorial imagination.  The second volume probed the changing transnational context of culture by emphasizing fluidity of borders, cultural spaces and identities in the ongoing process of becoming.  The third volume explores, in the author's own words, "homecomings—the ways people recover and renew their roots."  In essence, it represents an attempt to bridge roots and routes, or the local in the global, in ongoing negotiations of traditional futures.

The proposed paper will be an adaptation of a larger review essay on Clifford's trilogy, to appear in the journal boundary 2.