The nineteenth-century opium complex
From Thomas Love Peacock to Sherlock Holmes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10225213 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Josephine Mcdonagh (0000-0002-6401-4781, University of Chicago), Briony Wickes (0000-0002-2105-0651, University of Glasgow, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-18 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Literature & History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0306-1973 • E-ISSN: 2050-4594 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0306197320907437 |
| OpenAlex | W3024790040 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
This introduction to the special issue proposes that two discrete nineteenth-century histories of opium – a literary history, initiated by the drug confessions of De Quincey, and a colonial history, exemplified by the commercial activities of the East India Company (in which Thomas Love Peacock participated) in cultivating opium in Bengal for export to China, leading to the first Opium War – are common elements in a nineteenth-century ‘opium complex’, a set of interlocking practices of individuals and (quasi)state actors, extending across the globe. Sherlock Holmes detective stories are read as compressed registers of tensions that inhere in this complex
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · BENGAL · China · Colonialism · Globe · Literature · Opium · State (computer science · Classics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Psychology
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |