Oriental Networks: Culture, Commerce, and Communication in the Long Eighteenth Century

Description

Oriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century, a period of improving transportation technology, expansion of intercultural contacts, and the emergence of a global economy. In eight case studies and a substantial introduction, the volume examines relationships between individuals and institutions, precursors to modern networks that engaged in forms of intercultural exchange. Addressing the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), cultural practices and ideas, the roles of ambassadors and interlopers, and the literary and artistic representation of networks, networkers, and networking, contributors discuss the effects on people previously separated by vast geographical and cultural distance. Rather than idealizing networks as inherently superior to other forms of organization, Oriental Networks also considers Enlightenment expressions of resistance to networking that inform modern skepticism toward the concept of the global network and its politics. In doing so the volume contributes to the increasingly global understanding of culture and communication. Contents List of Illustrations Introduction: Oriental Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century • Bärbel Czennia 1. Knowing and Growing Tea: China, Britain, and the Formation of a Modern Global Commodity • Richard Coulton 2. China-Pugs: The Global Circulation of Chinoiseries, Porcelain, and Lapdogs, 1660–1800 • Stephanie Howard-Smith 3. Green Rubies from the Ganges: Eighteenth-Century Gardening as Intercultural Networking • Bärbel Czennia 4. The Blood of Noble Martyrs: Penelope Aubin’s Global Economy of Virtue as Critique of Imperial Networks • Samara Anne Cahill 5. Robert Morrison and the Dialogic Representation of Imperial China • Jennifer L. Hargrave 6. At Home with Empire? Charles Lamb, the East India Company, and “The South Sea House” • James Watt 7. Commerce and Cosmology on Lord George Macartney’s Embassy to China, 1792–1794 • Greg Clingham 8. Extreme Networking: Maria Graham’s Mountaintop, Underground, Intercontinental, and Otherwise Multidimensional Connections • Kevin L. Cope Acknowledgments Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index