Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie

Limehouse Nights and the Queer Spell of Chinatown

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book Thomas Burke's Dark Chinoiserie by Anne Veronica Witchard, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Anne Veronica Witchard ISBN: 9781351879439
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: March 2, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Anne Veronica Witchard
ISBN: 9781351879439
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: March 2, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

Focusing on Thomas Burke's bestselling collection of short stories, Limehouse Nights (1916), this book contextualises the burgeoning cult of Chinatown in turn-of-the-century London. London's 'Chinese Quarter' owed its notoriety to the Yellow Perilism that circulated in Britain at the fin-de-siècle, a demonology of race and vice masked by outward concerns about degenerative metropolitan blight and imperial decline. Anne Witchard's interdisciplinary approach enables her to displace the boundaries that have marked Chinese studies, literary studies, critiques of Orientalism and empire, gender studies, and diasporic research, as she reassesses this critical moment in London's history. In doing so, she brings attention to Burke's hold on popular and critical audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. A much-admired and successful author in his time, Burke in his Chinatown stories destabilizes social orthodoxies in highly complex and contradictory ways. For example, his writing was formative in establishing the 'queer spell' that the very mention of Limehouse would exert on the public imagination, and circulating libraries responded to Burke's portrayal of a hybrid East End where young Cockney girls eat Chow Mein with chopsticks in the local cafés and blithely gamble their housekeeping money at Fan Tan by banning Limehouse Nights. Witchard's book forces us to rethink Burke's influence and shows that China and chinoiserie served as mirrors that reveal the cultural disquietudes of western art and culture.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Focusing on Thomas Burke's bestselling collection of short stories, Limehouse Nights (1916), this book contextualises the burgeoning cult of Chinatown in turn-of-the-century London. London's 'Chinese Quarter' owed its notoriety to the Yellow Perilism that circulated in Britain at the fin-de-siècle, a demonology of race and vice masked by outward concerns about degenerative metropolitan blight and imperial decline. Anne Witchard's interdisciplinary approach enables her to displace the boundaries that have marked Chinese studies, literary studies, critiques of Orientalism and empire, gender studies, and diasporic research, as she reassesses this critical moment in London's history. In doing so, she brings attention to Burke's hold on popular and critical audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. A much-admired and successful author in his time, Burke in his Chinatown stories destabilizes social orthodoxies in highly complex and contradictory ways. For example, his writing was formative in establishing the 'queer spell' that the very mention of Limehouse would exert on the public imagination, and circulating libraries responded to Burke's portrayal of a hybrid East End where young Cockney girls eat Chow Mein with chopsticks in the local cafés and blithely gamble their housekeeping money at Fan Tan by banning Limehouse Nights. Witchard's book forces us to rethink Burke's influence and shows that China and chinoiserie served as mirrors that reveal the cultural disquietudes of western art and culture.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Imperial Leather by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Essential Criminology by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book A Criminological Imagination by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Knighthoods of Christ by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Developing Research in Mathematics Education by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Parenting After the Century of the Child by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book The Voyage of Captain John Narbrough to the Strait of Magellan and the South Sea in his Majesty's Ship Sweepstakes, 1669-1671 by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Expertisation and Democracy in Europe by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Managing the Global Network Corporation by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book International Maritime Transport Costs by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book The Invasion of Afghanistan and UK-Soviet Relations, 1979-1982 by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Genocide and Mass Atrocities in Asia by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book Individual Psychological Therapies in Forensic Settings by Anne Veronica Witchard
Cover of the book The Art of Writing Fiction by Anne Veronica Witchard
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy