| Contents |
pt. 1. Material traces in the archive -- Labor and ownership in the American South -- Solving the mystery of their union -- Strange Incursions into medical science at the Mutter Museum -- pt. 2. Reading literature and visual cultures -- Late-nineteenth-century visions of conflict and consensus -- Asian Americans bare/bear the hyphen -- Disciplining and normalizing the woman subject in contemporary literature and film pt. 3. Observing and participating -- Our esteemed ancestors. |
| Abstract |
"Conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker have fascinated the world since the nineteenth century. In her captivating book, Chang and Eng Reconnected, Cynthia Wu traces the 'original Siamese twins' through the terrain of American culture, showing how their inseparability underscored tensions between individuality and collectivity in the American popular imagination. Using letters, medical documents and exhibits, literature, art, film, and family lore, Wu provides a trans-historical analysis that presents the Bunkers as both a material presence and as metaphor. She also shows how the twins figure in representations of race, disability, and science in fictional narratives about nation building. As astute entrepreneurs, the twins managed their own lives; nonetheless, as Chang and Eng Reconnected shows, American culture has always viewed them through the multiple lenses of difference."--Publisher's Web site. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-196) and index. |
| Genre/form | Criticism, interpretation, etc. |
| LCCN | 2012008892 |
| ISBN | 9781439908686 (hardback ; alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 1439908680 (hardback ; alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 9781439908693 (paper ; alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 1439908699 (paper ; alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 9781439908709 (e-book) |
| ISBN | 1439908702 (e-book) |
| Standard identifier# |
40021424604 |
