Oriental Interiors

Since the publication of Edward Said's groundbreaking work Orientalism 35 years ago, numerous studies have explored the West's fraught and enduring fascination with the so-called Orient. Focusing their critical attention on the literary and pictorial arts, these studies have, to date, largely neglected the world of interior design. Oriental Interiors is the first book to fully explore the formation and perception of eastern-inspired interiors from an orientalist perspective. Orientalist spaces in the West have taken numerous forms since the 18th century to the present day, and the fifteen chapters in this collection reflect that diversity, dealing with subjects as varied and engaging as harems, Turkish baths on RMS Titanic, Parisian bachelor quarters, potted palms, and contemporary yoga studios. It explores how furnishings, surface treatments, ornament and music, for example, are deployed to enhance the exoticism and pleasures of oriental spaces, looking across a range of international locations. Organized into three parts, each introduced by the editor, the essays are grouped by theme to highlight critical paths into the intersections between orientalist studies, spatial theory, design studies, visual culture and gender studies, making this essential reading for students and researchers alike.

John Potvin is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at Concordia University, Canada, where he teaches on the intersections of art, interior design and fashion.

Introduction: Inside Orientalism: Hybrid Spaces and Modern Interior Design
John Potvin, Concordia University, Canada
Section I: Modes of Display and Representation
Introduction to Section I
Chapter 1: The Emptiness of Western Aesthetics Versus the Aesthetics of Eastern Intimacy: A Reading of Interior Spaces and (Colonial) Literary Impressionism in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India
Victor Vargas, Cogswell Polytechnic, USA
Chapter 2: The Exhibitionary Re-production of 'Islamic' Architecture
Solmaz Mohammadzadeh Kive, University of Colorado, USA
Chapter 3: Promoting the Colonial Empire through French Interior Design
Laura Sextro, University of Dayton, USA
Chapter 4: Orientalism and David Hockney's Male-positive Imaginative Geographies
Dennis S. Gouws, Springfield College and the Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies, Australia
Chapter 5: The Excessive Trompe l'Oeil: The Saturated Interior in Tears of the Black Tiger
Mark Taylor, University of Newcastle, Australia and Michael J. Ostwald, University of Newcastle, Australia
Section II: Gendered and Sexual Identities
Introduction to Section II
Chapter 6: On Oriental Interiors in Eighteenth-century British Women Writers' Novels
Marianna D'Ezio, Luspio University for International Studies of Rome, Italy
Chapter 7: Bachelor Quarters: The Spaces of Japonisme in Nineteenth-century Paris
Christopher Reed, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Chapter 8: Coming Out of the China Closet?: Performance, Identity and Sexuality in the House Beautiful
Anne Anderson, Hon. Research Fellow Exeter University and Associate MIRC, Kingston University, UK
Chapter 9: Orientalism, Collecting and Shame: Inside Rolf de Maré's Hildesborg Estate
John Potvin, Concordia University, Canada

Section III: Spaces and Markets of Consumption
Introduction to Section III
Chapter 10: Paradise in the Parlour: Potted Palms in Western Interiors, 1850 - 1914
Penny Sparke, Kingston University, UK
Chapter 11: Traveling in Time and Space: The Cinematic Landscape of the Empress Theatre
Camille Bédard, McGill University, Canada
Chapter 12: Oriental Spaces at Sea: From the Titanic to the Empress of Britain
Anne Massey, Middlesex University, UK
Chapter 13: Posturing for Authenticity: Embodying Otherness in Contemporary Interiors of Modern Yoga
Lauren Bird, Queen's University, Canada
Index