Cultural Appropriation and the Arts

Cultural Appropriation and the Arts, by James O. Young, provides an analytical, comprehensive overview of ethical and aesthetic issues concerning cultural appropriation. (Journal of Cult Economy, 25 March 2011) Young tackles an ambitious subject in this book. Culture, appropriation, and art, the keywords in the book's title, are all notoriously difficult to define. Young does not dedicate his book to defining these terms. Instead he clarifies family resemblances of these concepts, which he uses to make a case against cultural appropriation generally and the incorporation of cultural appropriation in the arts specifically. Recommended. (Choice, November 2008) The chief virtue of the book, [is] the conceptual clarifications Young brings to this diffuse topic, in particular the basic distinctions among types of appropriation. (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews) This book could only have come about through many years of travel and scholarly investigation. It is a valuable introduction for those not familiar with the literature on this interesting subject. Cultural Appropriation and the Arts will become the standard work in this field for many years to come, and undergraduates could gain every bit as much from its interesting examples and clear arguments as graduate students and professionals can. (Phil Jenkins, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 67, no.)