- Author(s): Dorinne K. Kondo
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press
- Release Date: 01 April, 1990
- Media: Paperback
- ISBN: 0226450449
- Sales Rank: 155,833
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Top Customer Reviews
 Kondo is fascinating
If you see the world in black & white, then this book probably is not for you. If, however, you are interested in challenging any preconceived notions you may have about Japan, for example, this book is an important contribution. Not a waste of paper!
 A big yawn
If you are into ethnographies where lots of words have ominous quotation marks around them, then this book is for you. If you find post-modernism a whole lot of nonsense perpetuated by people who see Al Gore as a deep thinker, then you may just pick up a used copy of Let's Go Japan or Lonely Planet-- more readable and useful that this "ethnography". All those poor dead trees which died for this book...Shame!
A Successful Postmodern Ethnography
Kondo's work is a much needed example of "how" to do postmodern ethnography. There have been many theorizations about alternative ethnographies, but few good deliveries. Kondo's narrative ethnography about power and its cultural effectivity at the level of everyday life delivers. In fact, her informative and creative work was never far from my on writing table during my ethnographic research which resulted in the recent release of my ethnographic monograph, Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography. Kondo's work is essential reading for anyone attempting to do ethnography about the complexities of cultural and personal identity formation and their hegemonic articulation in everyday practices. In short, Kondo takes the complicated and, oft-times, abstract theoretical renderings of poststructuralism/postmodernism and points to a way in which they can be enlivened through thick descriptions of everyday lives and situations. One of the finer and insightful aspects of her work is found in her tact of avoiding simplistic theoretical categorizing through the ethnographic utilization of irony and the notion of unintended consequences. A must have for those interested in feminist studies, Japanese culture and society, Cultural Studies, Postmodernism/Poststructuralism, and critical and alternative forms of ethnography.
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