Book contents
- Strolling Players of Empire
- Critical Perspectives on Empire
- Strolling Players of Empire
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Prologue
- Introduction
- Part I Playing
- Part II Theaters of Empire
- Part III East India Company Peripheries and the History of Modernity
- 7 Performing The Wonder in Sumatra
- 8 Napoleonic Gothic
- Book part
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
7 - Performing The Wonder in Sumatra
Theatrical Ethnography in a New World History
from Part III - East India Company Peripheries and the History of Modernity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2022
- Strolling Players of Empire
- Critical Perspectives on Empire
- Strolling Players of Empire
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Prologue
- Introduction
- Part I Playing
- Part II Theaters of Empire
- Part III East India Company Peripheries and the History of Modernity
- 7 Performing The Wonder in Sumatra
- 8 Napoleonic Gothic
- Book part
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
A pluriversal analysis of eighteenth-century British imperial designations of space, place and peoples through the contending performances cultures of British Sumatra as relayed by young naturalist William Marsden. In Bencoolen from 1771 to 1778, Marsden demonstrated that the island was the center of a new world historical language stretching from Madagascar to Easter Island. Here a performance of The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret, in conjunction with the gathering of materials for his future history of Sumatra, galvanized new appreciation for Sumatrans’ diverse cultures and their place in Britain’s glbal history.
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- Strolling Players of EmpireTheater and Performances of Power in the British Imperial Provinces, 1656–1833, pp. 369 - 420Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022