re: Kondo
peter.manning@ssc.msu.edu
Sat, 16 Mar 96 16:22:37 EST
Colleagues- I have spent the morning reading a book I had scanned before, D.
Kondo's Crafting Selves. It is frankly, just brilliant in conception, in
writing, in style, and in detail. Her first chapter on self is one of the
best contemporary summaries of the concept and it's complexities (cf. Becky
Erickson's query of last month about the self). Her conception of the book is
very clever as well.
The discussion of self, other, ethnography and the like is the best in the
literature. This is where one shuold begin on a quest for understanding new
forms and styles of ethnography. She writes about it, but also does it
elegantly and subtly. She is not enagged in polemic, metanarrative, or straw
man attacks.....This is a marvelous picturing of a complex culture......
I think it is also a book to be thought about as well as read, and I plan
to use it in seminars on risk, loyalty, etc. Her discussion of loyalty is
penetrating, engaging, enduring.....
Needless to say, I recommend this to you; it has helped me to see what
others have pointed to only.....She does it.
I would welcome other's response's to this fan note. Many of you (JVM,
Clough have mentioned this book to me and it is much cited, but I did not see
how deep and revealing the book is.
By the way, "self" is not the center of this bnbook at all, in spite of
the title.
Peter Manning