Résumé :
Amongst the many intertwining strands of colonial spectacle, I follow three – mechanical puppets, waxworks and spectral illusions – through the Australian colonies around the middle of the nineteenth century. Using ideas loosely derived from previous studies of the history of the circus and the avant-gardes I discuss how these spectacles and performances constituted a specifically Colonial Modernity. Although their forms were derived from British, European and North American sources, in the colonies show people and audiences together produced extraordinary new experiences which were innovative in their own right. I identify the characteristics which make Colonial Modernity different to Metropolitan Modernity. I argue for a rethinking of Modernity away from a model of concentrically diminishing ripples, towards a model of small eruptions of energy across interconnected transnational webs of interaction between the apparatuses, performers and audiences of both the frontier and the metropole.

Localisation : Bibliothèque

Cote : 791.301 J899c 2022