"In this new study of desire in Late Imperial China, Martin Huang argues that the development of traditional Chinese fiction as a narrative genre was closely related to changes in conceptions of the fundamental nature of desire. He further suggests that the rise of vernacular fiction during the late Ming dynasty should be studied in the context of contemporary debates on desire, along with the new and complex views that emerged from those debates.Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China shows that the obsession of authors with individual desire is an essential quality that defines traditional Chinese fiction as a narrative genre. Thus the maturation of the genre can best be appreciated in terms of its increasingly sophisticated exploration of the phenomenon of desire."

An original and stimulating critique of American empire

In the West, love occupies center stage in the modern age, whether in art, intellectual life, or the economic life. We may observe a similar development in China, on its own impetus, which has resulted in this characteristic of modernity--this feature of modern life has been securely and unambiguously established, not the least facilitated by the thriving of literature about qing, whether in traditional or modern forms. Qiancheng Li concentrates on the nuances of a similar trend manifested in the Chinese context. The emphasis is on critical readings of the texts that have shaped this trend, including important Ming- and Qing-dynasty works of drama, Buddhist texts and other religious/philosophical works, in all their subtlety and evocative power. "The power of qing or strong emotion is a major theme in late imperial Chinese literature--some writers asserting that it can transcend even life itself. Qiancheng Li surveys a number of seventeenth-century philosophical, religious, and literary texts to elucidate the metaphysical aspects of emotional attachment and of sexual desire in particular. Through his broad and penetrating reading, Li demonstrates incontrovertibly how, to seventeenth-century writers, qing and religion were inextricably linked. To those writers, qing could bring enlightenment, and certainly Li’s study enlightens its readers to new levels of complexity in major literary works of that period. Transmutations of Desire sets a major new milestone in the study of traditional Chinese culture."--Robert E. Hegel, Washington University in St. Louis

Throughout centuries of European colonial domination, the bodies of Middle Eastern dancers, male and female, move sumptuously and seductively across the pages of Western travel journals, evoking desire and derision, admiration and disdain, allure and revulsion. This profound ambivalence forms the axis of an investigation into Middle Eastern dance—an investigation that extends to contemporary belly dance. Stavros Stavrou Karayanni, through historical investigation, theoretical analysis, and personal reflection, explores how Middle Eastern dance actively engages race, sex, and national identity. Close readings of colonial travel narratives, an examination of Oscar Wilde’s Salome, and analyses of treatises about Greek dance, reveal the intricate ways in which this controversial dance has been shaped by Eurocentric models that define and control identity performance.

This book brings forth a new contribution to the study of imperialism and colonial discourse by theorizing the emergence and function of individual identity as product and producer of imperial power. While recent decades of theoretical reflections on imperialism have yielded important understandings of how the West has repeatedly reconsolidated its power, this book seeks to grasp the complex role of subjectivity in reformulating the terms of imperial domination from early modern European expansion to late capitalism. This entails approaching Empire as a constantly shifting system of differences and meanings as well as an ontological project, a mode of historical writing, and economy of desire that repeatedly envelops the subject into the realm of western power. The analysis of an array of literary texts and cultural artifacts is undertaken by means of a theoretically eclectic approach – drawing on psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, postcolonial theory, and Marxism – with the aim of forwarding current knowledge of Empire while also contributing to different branches of critical theory. In exploring the formation of imperial subjectivity in different historical moments, Silva raises new questions related to the signification of otherness in European expansion and colonial settlement, slavery and eugenics in post-independence Americas, and late capitalist circulation of bodies and commodities. The volume also covers a broad range of geo-cultural spaces in order to locate western power in time and space. This book’s diversity in terms of approach, historical scope, and cultural contexts makes it a useful tool for research and teaching among students and scholars of disciplines including Postcolonial Studies, Colonial History, Literature, and Globalization.

Centurion's Honor Daughter of the conquered ruler of Siga, forced to submit to Roman rule over her homeland, Anan Septinius has nothing but contempt for the Romans who now occupy her land and her home. Until she comes face-to-face with two centurions who stir her like no other. After surviving a nearly career-ending scandal, centurions Cassius and Titus are relegated to a remote post in the barbaric land of Siga to serve as personal guard to Anan Septinius. Dreading the menial task of guarding some foreign queen, they arrive anticipating a bitter, old widow but Anan is not at all what they'd expected. They're greeted by a woman who is as beautiful as she is intelligent, whose loathing for them is only rivaled by the long-denied desires burning in her gaze whenever she looks their way. They are bitter enemies, but in a harsh land a forbidden passion flares between the trio, one that has the power to heal their ravaged souls if it doesn't destroy them first. Centurion's Vow Nivea has suffered once through a loveless, passionless marriage and refuses to do so again. Set to wed in two months time, she overhears Gaius Ovidius joking with his comrades how she shall never please her intended, who is well known for possessing unique desires. Nivea forms an idea... If Gaius knows so much about the pleasures to be had in her marriage bed, then she shall have the handsome centurion instruct her accordingly. Initially set against her plan, Gaius eventually agrees. After all, how difficult could this be? Nivea has offered him a substantial sum in exchange for his lessons, and she is quite comely. Not an arduous task to bed a beautiful, lonely widow. It should have been a simple business transaction, a mutually pleasing but brief affair. Yet Gaius never wagered Nivea would steal his heart. Now just days before her wedding, Nivea will be forced to choose-abandon a life of security with her intended for a lifetime of happiness with Gaius...a man who can offer her nothing except his love. Centurion's Capture From the time she knew desire, Olivia has wanted Claudius Ovidius, but the retired centurion has long vowed he would never have her-because she is too young and innocent to the ways of lovemaking. But Olivia is not a girl anymore, and while she may not be skilled in the ways of pleasing men, she knows of Claudius' dark desires, and is certain she is up to the task of pleasing him. Claudius vowed he would never touch Olivia, but the girl is making it damn hard. When he visits the decadent club known only as The Cave and spots Olivia there, he demands she leave, but she's defiant, testing the last vestiges of his self-restraint. On that night, there are no more excuses or denials standing between them. And soon Claudius and Olivia find themselves playing a dangerous game of seduction, one that spirals into a passionate affair, igniting desperate longings and dredging up a dark secret Claudius thought forever buried.

Imperial Leather chronicles the dangerous liaisons between gender, race and class that shaped British imperialism and its bloody dismantling. Spanning the century between Victorian Britain and the current struggle for power in South Africa, the book takes up the complex relationships between race and sexuality, fetishism and money, gender and violence, domesticity and the imperial market, and the gendering of nationalism within the zones of imperial and anti-imperial power.

From its sweaty beats to the pulsating music on the streets, Latin/o America is perceived in the United States as the land of heat, the toy store for Western sex. It is the territory of magical fantasy and of revolutionary threat, where topography is the travel guide of desire, directing imperial voyeurs to the exhibition of the flesh. Jose Quiroga flips the stereotype upside down: he shows how Latin/o American lesbians and gay men have consistently eschewed notions of sexual identity for a politics of intervention. In Tropics of Desire, Quiroga reads hesitant Mexican poets as sex-positive voices, he questions how outing and identity politics can fall prey to the manipulations of the state, and explores how invisibility has been used as a tactical tool in opposition to the universal imperative to come out. Drawing on diverse cultural examples such as the performance of bolero and salsa, film, literature, and correspondence, and influenced by masters like Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin and a rich tradition of Latin American stylists, Quiroga argues for a politics that denies biological determinism and cannibalizes cultural stereotypes for the sake of political action.

Looking at the way cultural competencies and sensibilities entered into the construction of race in the colonial context, this text proposes that 'cultural racism' in fact predates its postmodern discovery.