Ethics after idealism

the long version

In Ethics after Idealism, Rey Chow explores once again the issue of cultural otherness that has been central to her work. She argues that at a time when cultural identity has become imbricated with the way we read our many "others," what must be examined critically is no longer identity politics per se but the idealism - especially in the sense of idealizing otherness - that lies at the heart of identity politics. Recognizing the necessity for a critique of idealism constitutes for Chow an ethics in the postcolonial, postmodern age. In particular, she uses "ethics" to designate the act of making decisions - in this context, decisions of reading - that may not immediately conform with prevalent social mores of idealizing our others but that, nonetheless, enables such others to emerge in their full complexities. Chow discusses an array of source materials whose affinities are as surprising as their appearances are heterologous. The readings she offers involve various cultural forms - fiction, film, popular music, poetry, and critical essays - and address a wide range of cultural topics, such as pedagogy, multiculturalism, fascism, sexuality, miscegenation, community, fantasy, governance, nostalgia, and postcoloniality.