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Arts & Photography

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

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

Long before Sofia Coppolaâ€™s Lost in Translation, long before Barthes explicated his empire of signs, even before Pucciniâ€™s Madame Butterfly, Gilbert and Sullivanâ€™s The Mikado presented 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.
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Tracing the history of The Mikadoâ€™s performances from Victorian times to the present, Josephine Lee reveals the continuing viability of the playâ€™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 1938â€“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 Leighâ€™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.
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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 â€œJapaneseâ€ was.

Country	USA
Author	Josephine Lee
Binding	Paperback
Brand	Brand: Univ Of Minnesota Press
EAN	9780816665808
Edition	First Printing
Feature	Used Book in Good Condition
ISBN	081666580X
Label	Univ Of Minnesota Press
Manufacturer	Univ Of Minnesota Press
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	280
PublicationDate	2010-04-28
Publisher	Univ Of Minnesota Press
Studio	Univ Of Minnesota Press
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

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