The Rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, Charity and the Poverty of Representation by John Hutnyk [Premium Books]

Book Summary

The Rumour of Calcutta is a cultural critique that examines how the Indian city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) has been represented and imagined particularly by Western travellers, tourism guides, volunteer charity workers, literature, cinema, photography, and maps. Rather than treating these portrayals as neutral observations, Hutnyk shows how such depictions often create an imagined city of intensities that emphasises poverty, decay, exoticism, and suffering in ways that reinforce unequal global power relations and stereotypes. By analysing the rumours circulated through traveller-lore and media, the book argues that these narratives dont simply describe the city but play an active role in shaping and maintaining perceptions that often obscure lived realities and reproduce a poverty of representation limited, distorted views of a complex urban and cultural life. To support this argument, Hutnyk engages with critical theory, drawing on thinkers such as Heidegger, Marx, Spivak, Derrida, and others to unpack how representation itself influences our understanding of place and people.

About the Author

John Hutnyk is a British academic and cultural theorist whose work focuses on the politics of representation, cultural studies, tourism, media, and postcolonial theory. He has held academic positions around the world, including roles as Associate Professor in sociology and cultural studies, and visiting scholar appointments in universities across Europe and Asia. Hutnyk is known for his interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from anthropology, philosophy, cultural theory, and critical sociology to explore how cultural productions influence the way societies see and interact with one another. In addition to The Rumour of Calcutta, he has written and edited other influential works such as Critique of Exotica, Bad Marxism, and Global South Asia on Screen, contributing to debates on culture, identity, and power in a globalised world.