This is a critical study of French and British art and written texts (poetry, literature, travel accounts, art criticism) -- orientalist works about the harem produced in the period from 1800-1875. Original readings are provided for over 150 harem pictures, from well-known salon paintings to rarely published erotic popular prints and book illustrations. Multiple Wives, Multiple Pleasures examines these works closely, often establishing fresh contexts for many of the more well-known nineteenth-century harem pictures, and often providing a consideration of lesser-known harem pictures that have been rarely published until now.
The Indian Ocean has been the site of multiple interconnected medical interactions that may be viewed in the context of the environmental factors connecting the region. This interdisciplinary work presents essays on various aspects of disease, medicine, and healing in different locations in and around the Indian Ocean from the eighteenth century to the contemporary era. The essays explore theoretical explanations for disease, concepts of fertility, material culture, healing in relation to diplomacy and colonialism, public health, and the health of slaves and migrant workers. This book will appeal to academics and graduate students working in the fields of medical and scientific history, as well as in the growing fields of Indian Ocean studies and global history.
An interdisciplinary collection of essays exploring the harem as it was imagined, represented, and experienced in Middle Eastern and North African societies, and by visitors to those societies.
In Orientalism, Eroticism and Modern Visuality in Global Cultures scholars look afresh at representations of nineteenth-century ?oriental? bodies, inquiring deeply into their erotic dimensions, tracing their global dissemination at cross-cultural intersections of the visual and the political. Authors consider the impact of eroticized orientalist representations registered on racial and gendered bodies at historical moments across the globe in the media of photography, painting, prints and sculpture by contextualizing the visual within social practices, ethnography, literature, travel writing and the dynamics of imperialism. Authors examine orientalism?s politico-erotic import across not only imperial Britain and France but also throughout India and the Middle East initiating cross-cultural analyses of orientalism outside of Europe. Works studied include Orientalist and homoerotic works by canonic artists such as Ingres, G?me, Delacroix and Girodet, and lesser-known artists such as sculptor Raffaele Monti and painter Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann. Contributors explore Turkish and European writings, explorer Richard Burton?s self-fashioning, and popular Orientalist photography in India and the Middle East. Authors draw on methods from gender studies, semiotics, material culture and psychoanalysis to explore art, national identity, homoerotic subcultures, female agency, class, sexuality and colonialism. The book is directed to interdisciplinary scholars and students in art history, literature, history, and postcolonial studies.
For decades, polygamous families have been forced to hide their lifestyle. But this first-ever memoir of a polygamous family is a riveting inside look at a world we can hardly imagine, revealing the extraordinary workings of one family’s day-to-day life. In this intimate story, the Dargers explain why they chose this path despite the pressures of keeping their relationships secret and the jealousy and personal challenges that naturally ensue; why they believe polygamy should be an accepted lifestyle; and, ultimately, why they hope that by revealing their way of life in public, laws that criminalize polygamy might change. Despite the risk of legal action, the Dargers know that it’s time to counteract Hollywood’s sensational interpretation and the general public’s misunderstanding of polygamy with the truth.
A poignant account of everyday polygamy and what its regulation reveals about who is viewed as an "Other" In the past thirty years, polygamy has become a flashpoint of conflict as Western governments attempt to regulate certain cultural and religious practices that challenge seemingly central principles of family and justice. In Forbidden Intimacies, Melanie Heath comparatively investigates the regulation of polygamy in the United States, Canada, France, and Mayotte. Drawing on a wealth of ethnographic and archival sources, Heath uncovers the ways in which intimacies framed as "other" and "offensive" serve to define the very limits of Western tolerance. These regulation efforts, counterintuitively, allow the flourishing of polygamies on the ground. The case studies illustrate a continuum of justice, in which some groups, like white fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S., organize to fight against the prohibition of their families' existence, whereas African migrants in France face racialized discrimination in addition to rigid migration policies. The matrix of legal and social contexts, informed by gender, race, sexuality, and class, shapes the everyday experiences of these relationships. Heath uses the term "labyrinthine love" to conceptualize the complex ways individuals negotiate different kinds of relationships, ranging from romantic to coercive. What unites these families is the secrecy in which they must operate. As government intervention erodes their abilities to secure housing, welfare, work, and even protection from abuse, Heath exposes the huge variety of intimacies, and the power they hold to challenge heteronormative, Western ideals of love.
Methods for Exodus is a textbook on biblical methodology. The book introduces readers to six distinct methodologies that aid in the interpretation of the book of Exodus: literary and rhetorical, genre, source and redaction, liberation, feminist, and postcolonial criticisms. Describing each methodology, the volume also explores how the different methods relate to and complement one another. Each chapter includes a summary of the hermeneutical presuppositions of a particular method with a summary of the impact of the method on the interpretation of the book of Exodus. In addition, Exodus 1–2 and 19–20 are used to illustrate the application of each method to specific texts. The book is unique in offering a broad methodological discussion with all illustrations centered on the book of Exodus.
The charismatic Alexander the Great of Macedon (356–323 B.C.E.) was one of the most successful military commanders in history, conquering Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, central Asia, and the lands beyond as far as Pakistan and India. Alexander has been, over the course of two millennia since his death at the age of thirty-two, the central figure in histories, legends, songs, novels, biographies, and, most recently, films. In 2004 director Oliver Stone’s epic film Alexander generated a renewed interest in Alexander the Great and his companions, surroundings, and accomplishments, but the critical response to the film offers a fascinating lesson in the contentious dialogue between historiography and modern entertainment. This volume brings together an intriguing mix of leading scholars in Macedonian and Greek history, Persian culture, film studies, classical literature, and archaeology—including some who were advisors for the film—and includes an afterword by Oliver Stone discussing the challenges he faced in putting Alexander’s life on the big screen. The contributors scrutinize Stone’s project from its inception and design to its production and reception, considering such questions as: Can a film about Alexander (and similar figures from history) be both entertaining and historically sound? How do the goals of screenwriters and directors differ from those of historians? How do Alexander’s personal relationships—with his mother Olympias, his wife Roxane, his lover Hephaistion, and others—affect modern perceptions of Alexander? Several of the contributors also explore reasons behind the film’s tepid response at the box office and subsequent controversies.
