Anne Anlin Cheng – författare

Focusing on the cultural and philosophic conflation between the "oriental" and the "ornamental," Ornamentalism offers an original and sustained theory about Asiatic femininity in western culture. This study pushes our vocabulary about the woman of color past the usual platitudes about objectification and past the critique of Orientalism in order to formulate a fresher and sharper understanding of the representation, circulation, and ontology of Asiatic femininity. This book alters the foundational terms of racialized femininity by allowing us to conceptualize race and gender without being solely beholden to flesh or skin. Tracing a direct link between the making of Asiatic femininity and a technological history of synthetic personhood in the West from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, Ornamentalism demonstrates how the construction of modern personhood in the multiple realms of law, culture, and art has been surprisingly indebted to this very marginal figure and places Asian femininity at the center of an entire epistemology of race. Drawing from and speaking to the multiple fields of feminism, critical race theory, visual culture, performance studies, legal studies, Modernism, Orientalism, Object Studies and New Materialism, Ornamentalism will leave reader with a greater understanding of what it is to exist as a person-thing within the contradictions of American culture.

In this groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study Anne A. Cheng argues that we have to understand racial grief not only as the result of racism but also as a foundation for racial identity. She proposes that racial identification is itself already a melancholy act - a social category that is imaginatively supported through a dynamic of loss and compensation, by which the racial other is at once rejected and retained, denigrated and idealized. Drawing upon history, literature and theatre - the book ranges from Rodgers and Hammerstein to David Henry Whang, Brown v. Board of Education to Anne Deveare Smith, Ralph Ellison to Maxine Hong Kingston - Cheng demonstrates that racial melancholia permeates our fantasies of citizenship, assimilation, and social health. A provocative look at a timely cultural dilemma, this study is essential reading for anyone interested in race studies, critical theory, or psychoanalysis.

In this groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study Anne Anlin Cheng argues that we have to understand racial grief not only as the result of racism but also as a foundation for racial identity. The Melancholy of Race proposes that racial identification is itself already a melancholic act--a social category that is imaginatively supported through a dynamic of loss and compensation, by which the racial other is at once rejected and retained. Using psychoanalytic theories on mourning and melancholia as inroads into her subject, Cheng offers a closely observed and carefully reasoned account of the minority experience as expressed in works of art by, and about, Asian-Americans and African-Americans. She argues that the racial minority and dominant American culture both suffer from racial melancholia and that this insight is crucial to a productive reimagining of progressive politics. Her discussion ranges from "Flower Drum Song" to "M. Butterfly," Brown v. Board of Education to Anna Deavere Smith's "Twilight," and Invisible Man to The Woman Warrior, in the process demonstrating that racial melancholia permeates our fantasies of citizenship, assimilation, and social health. Her investigations reveal the common interests that social, legal, and literary histories of race have always shared with psychoanalysis, and situates Asian-American and African-American identities in relation to one another within the larger process of American racialization. A provocative look at a timely subject, this study is essential reading for anyone interested in race studies, critical theory, or psychoanalysis.

Focusing on the cultural and philosophic conflation between the "oriental" and the "ornamental," Ornamentalism offers an original and sustained theory about Asiatic femininity in western culture. This study pushes our vocabulary about the woman of color past the usual platitudes about objectification and past the critique of Orientalism in order to formulate a fresher and sharper understanding of the representation, circulation, and ontology of Asiatic femininity. This book alters the foundational terms of racialized femininity by allowing us to conceptualize race and gender without being solely beholden to flesh or skin. Tracing a direct link between the making of Asiatic femininity and a technological history of synthetic personhood in the West from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, Ornamentalism demonstrates how the construction of modern personhood in the multiple realms of law, culture, and art has been surprisingly indebted to this very marginal figure and places Asian femininity at the center of an entire epistemology of race. Drawing from and speaking to the multiple fields of feminism, critical race theory, visual culture, performance studies, legal studies, Modernism, Orientalism, Object Studies and New Materialism, Ornamentalism will leave reader with a greater understanding of what it is to exist as a "person-thing" within the contradictions of American culture.

Through the figure of Josephine Baker, Second Skin tells the story of an unexpected yet enduring intimacy between the invention of a modernist style and the theatricalization of black skin at the turn of the twentieth century. Stepping outside of the platitudes surrounding this iconic figure, Anne A. Cheng argues that Baker's famous nakedness must be understood within larger philosophic and aesthetic debates about, and desire for, 'pure surface' that crystallized at the convergence of modern art, architecture, machinery, and philosophy. Through Cheng's analysis, Baker emerges as a central artist whose work engages with and impacts various modes of modernist display such as film, photography, art, and even the modern house.

Can a mysterious silver cube help Lina, Chloe and Abeo to make a positive difference in the world?In a flash, Lina, Chloe and Abeo's lives are changed forever. A silver cube has appeared and, with it, an opportunity to make a difference in the world. However, things don't go to plan ... This book is from Readerful's Independent Library. It is for children aged 8 to 9 to read without support. Readerful: Inspiring Children to Read MoreReaderful is a specially designed reading library that motivates children aged 4-11 to develop a lifelong love of reading. The series offers contemporary, inclusive books across three key collections: Books for Sharing: Picture books to be read aloud by an adult for inspiring reading sessionsIndependent Library: Fiction, graphic texts, character mini-series and non-fiction for children to read independentlyRise: Fully decodable books for older struggling readers to read independently.How Readerful works: • Read aloud the Books for Sharing for magical reading sessions that motivate children to read more. • Encourage children to choose a book to read by themselves, from Readerful's Independent Library or from Rise. You'll find links between the books' topics, vocabulary, characters and authors - all designed to keep children reading, boost their vocabulary and develop their knowledge of the world around them.

Titled Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis, the 18th edition of the MOMENTA Biennale de l’image presents 23 artists whose projects activate processes of transformation, mimicry, and mutation. Its goal is to shed light on the dynamics of visibility and invisibility defining the relationships between self and other, between humans and their environment, whether that environment is vegetal, animal, or technological. This publication assembles the descriptions of the exhibitions, an essay by Anne Anlin Cheng on the metamorphic potential of “skin consciousness,” an original portfolio of photographs by Chris Curreri, and an essay by the curator Ji-Yoon Han that reflects on the notion of the image through the prism of the Biennale’s theme.Artists: Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes, Bianca Baldi, Rémi Belliveau, Valérie Blass, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Chris Curreri, Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, Mara Eagle, Jeannette Ehlers, Séamus Gallagher, Lynn Hershman Leeson, siren eun young jung, Marion Lessard, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Marianne Nicolson, Kristina Norman, Meky Ottawa, Émilie Pitoiset, Naomi Rincón Gallardo, Anette Rose, Hito Steyerl, Maya Watanabe, Carey Young.