Title
Butterfly's sisters [electronic resource] : the Geisha in western culture / Yoko Kawaguchi.
ISBN
9780300169461 electronic book
0300169469 electronic book
9780300115215
0300115210
Imprint
New Haven : Yale University Press, c2010.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (x, 342 p.) : ill.
Call Number
GT3412 .K36 2010eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
792.702/80952
Summary
"In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Yoko Kawaguchi explores the Western portrayal of Japanese women--and geishas in particular--from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. She argues that in the West, Japanese women have come to embody certain ideas about feminine sexuality, and she analyses how these ideas have been expressed in diverse art forms, ranging from fiction and opera to the visual arts and music videos. Among the many works Kawaguchi discusses are the art criticism of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the opera Madama Butterfly, the sculptures of Rodin, the Broadway play Teahouse of the August Moon, and the international bestseller Memoirs of a Geisha. Butterfly's Sisters also examines the impact on early twentieth-century theatre, drama and dance theory of the performance styles of the actresses Madame Hanako and Sadayakko, both formerly geishas."--Book jacket.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-328) and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Were they or weren't they?: Geishas and early Western perceptions of the morality of Japanese women
Geishas as artefact: artifice, ideal beauty and the natural woman
Madam Butterfly's antecedents: the women of the ports and Japanese 'wives'
Hara-Kiri!: Sadayakko and Madame Hanako on the Western stage
From foe to friend: geishas in Anglo-American popular culture before and after the Second World War
Bunny-boiler or like a virgin: images of the geisha in late twentieth-century America.
