Beyond control
Orientalist tensions and the history of the “upas tree” myth
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9003402 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tim Hannigan (0000-0003-0141-3010, University of Leicester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 173-189 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Commonwealth Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9894 • E-ISSN: 1741-6442 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0021989418754345 |
| OpenAlex | W2793059998 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
The “upas tree” is one of the most enduring European myths about Southeast Asia. Accounts of a tree so toxic that it renders the surrounding atmosphere deadly can first be identified in fourteenth-century journey narratives covering what is now Indonesia. But while most other such apocrypha vanished from later European accounts of the region, the upas myth remained prominent and in fact became progressively more elaborate and fantastical, culminating in a notorious hoax: the 1783 account of J. N. Foersch. This article examines the history of the development of the upas myth, and considers the divergent responses to Foersch’s hoax amongst scientists and colonial administrators on the one hand, and poets, playwrights, and artists on the other. In this it reveals a significant tension within the emerging “Orientalist” discourse about Southeast Asia in the early nineteenth century
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Hoax · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Orientalism · Asian Studies and History · Classics · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Philippine History and Culture
The Discursive Construction of Southeast Asia in 19th-Century Colonial-Capitalist Discourse
Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Writing East
Art. XIII.—Remarks on the Origin of the Popular Belief in the Upas, or Poison Tree of Java
British Performances of Java, 1811–1822
The political economy of poison
History of the Indian Archipelago
For Lust of Knowing. Orientalists and their Enemies
| Highly cited | No |
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