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Oriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century. Contributors discuss relationships between individuals and institutions as precursors to modern networks as they facilitated the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), practices, and ideas. Highlighting ambiguities and unexpected outcomes of networking, the volume adds historical perspective to our understanding of globalization.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgment
Introduction: Oriental Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century
Bärbel Czennia
Chapter 1: Knowing and Growing Tea: China, Britain, and the Formation of a Modern Global Commodity
Richard Coulton
Chapter 2: China-Pugs: The Global Circulation of Chinoiseries, Porcelain, and Lapdogs, 1660–1800
Stephanie Howard-Smith
Chapter 3: Green Rubies from the Ganges: Eighteenth-Century Gardening as Intercultural Networking
Bärbel Czennia
Chapter 4: The Blood of Noble Martyrs: Penelope Aubin’s Global Economy of Virtue as Critique of Imperial Networks
Samara Anne Cahill
Chapter 5: Robert Morrison and the Dialogic Representation of Imperial China
Jennifer L. Hargrave
Chapter 6: At Home with Empire? Charles Lamb, the East India Company, and “The South Sea House”
James Watt
Chapter 7: Commerce and Cosmology on Lord George Macartney’s Embassy to China, 1792–94
Greg Clingham
Chapter 8: Extreme Networking: Maria Graham’s Mountaintop, Underground, Intercontinental, and Otherwise Multidimensional Connections
Kevin L. Cope
Bibliography
Index
About the Contributors
About the author
BÄRBEL CZENNIA has served as associate professor of English at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and as tenured senior lecturer of English literature at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, for more than 25 years. She is the author or editor of many essays and two books, including Celebrities: The Idiom of a Modern Era.
GREG CLINGHAM is emeritus professor of English at Bucknell University, a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and the author or editor of ten books, including Johnson, Writing, and Memory. From 1996 to 2018, he was director of the Bucknell University Press.
Summary
Explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century. 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.
