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Dibyesh Anand sets out a clear thesis in Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination --that the manner of Tibet's representation, the ways in which it has been imagined, has played a central role in determining Tibet's political identity. In service to this thesis, he enlists methodologies and theories drawn from the literature of postcoloniality and applies them within the larger analytical context of "critical international relations." As expected, there is a heavy emphasis on the Western literature on Tibet, particularly the English literature, and on the British imagining and "scripting" of Tibet's identity.
But this approach omits much, and it is fundamentally troubling as a result. It is perfectly acceptable to note the ways in which Western writers conjured up what Anand terms "Exotica Tibet." It is also perfectly acceptable to note that this "Exotica Tibet" played a role in the way many British viewed Tibet (e.g., "Tibet is a place that is discursively constructed through the imaginative practices of the various actors involved," p. 65). But as Anand colors in the outline, the analysis becomes simplistic and reductionist, predictably demonizing Western motives in studying and rendering non-Western cultures knowable (pp. 17, 24). The things that Anand gets right--Westerners conjuring up...