Consuming Cultural Hegemony

This book examines the circulation and viewership of Bollywood films and filmi modernity in Bangladesh. The writer poses a number of fundamental questions: what it means to be a Bangladeshi in South Asia, what it means to be a Bangladeshi fan of Hindi film, and how popular film reflects power relations in South Asia. The writer argues that partition has resulted in India holding hegemonic power over all of South Asia's nation-states at the political, economic, and military levelsa situation that has made possible its cultural hegemony. The book draws on relevant literature from anthropology, sociology, film, media, communication, and cultural studies to explore the concepts of hegemony, circulation, viewership, cultural taste, and South Asian cultural history and politics.

Repositions Bangladesh in the South Asian cultural scene and contributes new knowledge, perspectives, and understandings about cultural consumption and India's regional hegemonic power and its relations with smaller neighbors Demonstrates how Indian films expose class differentiation within Bangladesh while reinforcing India's cultural hegemony Offers interdisciplinary analysis drawing upon methodologies and perspectives from anthropology, sociology, media studies, communication, film studies, and cultural studies

Autorentext

Harisur Rahman is Assistant Professor at North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He holds a Ph.D. degree in anthropology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His dissertation examined the circulation and viewership of Indian films in Bangladesh. His research interests include media anthropology, cultural circulation and consumption, intercultural communication, film and media

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. From Partition to Hegemony: Bangladesh and Bangladeshi Films in the South Asian Context.- 3. Ethnographic Fieldwork: The Self as an Informant and an Observer.- 4. The Political Economy, Materiality and the Visceral Experience of Cable Television.- 5. The Cultural Economy of the CD/DVD Store and the Creation of Space.- 6. Culture of Copying and Copying of Culture: Media "Piracy" in Bangladesh.- 7. Belonging to Class: Hindi Film and the Formation of Middle Class Audience in Bangladesh.- 8. Negotiating Mediated Modernity and Culture: When Soft Power Becomes Hard.- 9. Bollywoodization or Ghettoization?: The Bangladeshi Dream Factory is in Disarray.- 10. Summary and Conclusion.