Time in Service of Orientalism: The Case of Polish Japanomania at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Łuksza, Agata (1983– )

doi:2450-8462

Pobierz

Tytuł: Time in Service of Orientalism: The Case of Polish Japanomania at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstrakt:

In this article, I investigate Japanomania – the European and American fascination with Japan from the 1860s to the 1910s – focusing on how Western conceptions of time determined perceptions of Japanese culture. Drawing on Edward Said’s Orientalism and Stuart Hall’s conception of ‘the West’ as a historical construct, I claim that Western understandings of time were instrumental in disseminating Orientalism, framing the East as exotic, static, and timeless. The study centres on Japanomania in turn-of-the-century Warsaw, including the reception of Japanese exhibitions and theatre performances, showing that the modern concept of time was a crucial tool of Orientalism. Specifically, the idea of ‘universal’ time allowed for comparisons between cultures, positioning non-Western societies as inferior and preserving Western hierarchies and narratives. The article demonstrates how Western ideological frameworks influenced Polish cultural identities and shaped local fantasies about Japan and the Orient.

Bibliografia:

Bush Christopher, ‘The Ethnicity of Things in America’s Lacquered Age’, Representations, cxix, 1 (2007), 74–98.
Downer Lesley, Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West (New York, 2003).
Fryxell Allegra R.P., ‘Time and the Modern: Current Trends in the History of Modern Temporalities’, Past and Present, ccxliii, 1 (2019), 285–98.
Hall Stuart and Bram Gieben (eds), Formations of Modernity (Cambridge, 1992).
Karwowska Elżbieta (ed.), Orient i orientalizm w sztuce (Warszawa, 1986).
Kluczewska-Wójcik Agnieszka and Jerzy Malinowski (eds), Art of Japan, Japanisms, and Polish-Japanese Art Relations (Toruń, 2021).
Kluczewska-Wójcik Agnieszka, Japonia w kulturze i sztuce polskiej końca XIX i początków XX wieku (Toruń–Warszawa, 2016).
Lambourne Lionel, Japonisme. Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West (London, 2005).
Lee Josephine, The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado (Minneapolis–London, 2010).
McClintock Anne, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York–London, 1996).
Moynihan Conor, ‘Timelessness and Precarity in Orientalist Temporality: Mehdi-Georges Lahlou’s Aesthetics of Disorientation’, Contemporaneity, viii, 1 (2019).
Ogle Vanessa, Global Transformation of Time, 1870–1950 (Cambridge, MA – London, 2015).
Said Edward, Orientalism (London, 2003).
Savarese Nicola, Eurasian Theatre: Drama and Performance between East and West from Classical Antiquity to the Present, transl. Richard Fowler (Holstebro, 2010).
Yoshihara Mari, Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism (Oxford, 2003).
Ziter Edward, The Orient on the Victorian Stage (Cambridge, 2003).