Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Out of “Africa”
2. Saving Birhan
3. Madonna and Child
Conclusion
References
Index
Keith Tester is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hull in England and Professor of Sociology at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea. He is the author of numerous books, including the prize-winning Animals and Society: The Humanity of Animal Rights (1991), Civil Society (1992), Media, Culture, and Morality (1994), Moral Culture (1997), and Compassion, Morality, and the Media (2001).
“In all the frenzy of celebrity humanitarianism, where famous idols
call attention to the world’s suffering (and to themselves), Keith
Tester’s trenchant book provides the critical eye necessary to
understand how Western culture exploits humanitarian crisis. In the
field of human rights today, there is a disturbing trend toward
making human rights another cause célèbre, packaged for the
consumption of the world’s fortunate consumers. How has the
commercialization and consumerization of human rights affected the
course of global emancipation from suffering? Tester’s book
provides some unsettling but crucial answers.”—Thomas
Cushman,Wellesley College
“Humanitarianism and Modern Culture is a timely and fascinating
book that cuts across reportage of pop literary references to
illuminate our understanding of the role of popular culture in
shaping humanitarian discourse.”—Ruti Teitel,Ernst C. Stiefel
Professor of Comparative Law, New York Law School
“Tester charmingly revives the spirit of Roland Barthes’
Mythologies (1957) in a few wonderful, deconstructive readings of
Bob Geldof’s photographs of Africa, which illustrate his claim that
Western humanitarianism rests on a number of mythic images and
aestheticizing notions of cultural difference, for example the
"gorgeous Ethiopian."”—Matthew Specter Human Rights Review
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