{"product_id":"a-taste-for-china-eugenia-zuroski-9780190887438","title":"A Taste for China: English Subjectivity and the Prehistory of Orientalism","description":"Challenging existing narratives of the relationship between China and Europe, this study establishes how modern English identity evolved through strategies of identifying \u003cem\u003ewith\u003c\/em\u003e rather than against China. Through an examination of England's obsession with Chinese objects throughout the long eighteenth century, \u003cem\u003eA Taste for China\u003c\/em\u003e argues that chinoiserie in literature and material culture played a central role in shaping emergent conceptions of taste and subjectivity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInformed by sources as diverse as the writings of John Locke, Alexander Pope, and Mary Wortley Montagu, Zuroski begins with a consideration of how literature transported cosmopolitan commercial practices into a model of individual and collective identity. She then extends her argument to the vibrant world of Restoration comedy-most notably the controversial \u003cem\u003eThe Country Wife\u003c\/em\u003e by William Wycherley-where Chinese objects are systematically associated with questionable tastes and behaviors. Subsequent chapters draw on Defoe, Pope, and Swift to explore how adventure fiction and satirical poetry use chinoiserie to construct, question, and reimagine the dynamic relationship between people and things. The second half of the eighteenth century sees a marked shift as English subjects anxiously seek to separate themselves from Chinese objects. A reading of texts including Aphra Behn's \u003cem\u003eOroonoko \u003c\/em\u003e and Jonas Hanway's \u003cem\u003eEssay on Tea\u003c\/em\u003e shows that the enthrallment with chinoiserie does not disappear, but is rewritten as an aristocratic perversion in midcentury literature that prefigures modern sexuality. Ultimately, at the century's end, it is nearly disavowed altogether, which is evinced in works like Charlotte Lennox's \u003cem\u003eThe Female Quixote\u003c\/em\u003e and Jane Austen's \u003cem\u003eNorthanger Abbey\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA persuasively argued and richly textured monograph on eighteenth-century English culture, \u003cem\u003eA Taste for China\u003c\/em\u003e will interest scholars of cultural history, thing theory, and East-West relations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Eugenia Zuroski\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0190887435\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190887438\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/01\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.95lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.80d","brand":"Eugenia Zuroski","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43914171351295,"sku":"9780190887438","price":47.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_56102421-b49f-4f45-8dda-4ad452db98f5.jpg?v=1680640748","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/a-taste-for-china-eugenia-zuroski-9780190887438","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}