""Passport Photos" is a radiant text. It connects its own ironic lyricism with an acute awareness of historical context, and is a moving document of the questions posed by symbolic migration."--Sara Suleri Goodyear, author of "Meatless Days" "Amitava Kumar brings his talents as a photographer, poet, scriptwriter, and journalist to the job of critical commentary, refusing to partition and delegate these skills to separate provinces of his intellectual life. The result is an ethical voice and a technical style that often ...
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""Passport Photos" is a radiant text. It connects its own ironic lyricism with an acute awareness of historical context, and is a moving document of the questions posed by symbolic migration."--Sara Suleri Goodyear, author of "Meatless Days" "Amitava Kumar brings his talents as a photographer, poet, scriptwriter, and journalist to the job of critical commentary, refusing to partition and delegate these skills to separate provinces of his intellectual life. The result is an ethical voice and a technical style that often defies our expectations of the critical commentator. I find that voice and style immensely appealing, no more so than in the multi-genre documentary work of "Passport Photos." This is not a heavy-handed screed on the conditions of immigrants. It is a sensuous guide to the common contradictions and experiences faced by immigrants to the U.S., whether they are coming from the underside of the international division of labor or from well-heeled and credentialed birthrights. An undeniably original contribution to several academic and journalistic fields, "Passport Photos" will, I expect, be a widely-acclaimed publication and much cited as a fresh paradigm-shaker."--Andrew Ross, author of "The Celebration Chronicles" "An important, timely, and unique book that seems to have multiple lines of descent--as if postcolonial theory were cross-pollinated with poetry, photojournalism, and memoir all at once."--Michael Berube, author of "Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child" "Amitava Kumar is the most grounded of the postcolonial writers today. "Passport Photos" is a brilliant illustration of his skills. A must read for anybody interested in immigration, transnational identities, and globalization."--Manthia Diawara, author of "In Search of Africa" ""Passport Photos" is a meditation on the modalities of the immigrant: on language as law and record of living immigrant dailiness; on place as a world one loses that gives rise to identity and belonging; on knowledge as the possession of some and not others, as what the immigrant can be but cannot have." Lisa Lowe, author of "Immigrant Acts"
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