Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado

by Josephine Lee
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹3,279.00
Original price ₹3,935.00
Original price ₹3,935.00
Original price ₹3,935.00
(-17%)
₹3,279.00
Current price ₹3,279.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9780816665808
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
  • Publisher Imprint: University of Minnesota Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 280
  • Original Price: USD 28.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 341 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Genres & Styles / Opera

Long before Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, long before Barthes explicated his empire of signs, even before Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikadopresented its own distinctive version of Japan. Set in a fictional town called Titipu and populated by characters named Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo, and Pooh-Bah, the opera has remained popular since its premiere in 1885. Tracing the history of The Mikado's performances from Victorian times to the present, Josephine Lee reveals the continuing viability of the play's surprisingly complex racial dynamics as they have been adapted to different times and settings. Lee connects yellowface performance to blackface minstrelsy, showing how productions of the 1938-39 Swing Mikado and Hot Mikado, among others, were used to promote African American racial uplift. She also looks at a host of contemporary productions and adaptations, including Mike Leigh's film Topsy-Turvy and performances of The Mikado in Japan, to reflect on anxieties about race as they are articulated through new visions of the town of Titipu. The Mikado creates racial fantasies, draws audience members into them, and deftly weaves them into cultural memory. For countless people who had never been to Japan, The Mikado served as the basis for imagining what "Japanese" was.

Josephine Lee is associate professor of English and Asian American studies at the University of Minnesota. She is author of Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage and coeditor (with Imogene Lim and Yuko Matsukawa) of Re/Collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Culture History.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us