Infelicities
Subtitle: representations of the exotic
By: Peter Mason.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
Subjects: Art, European -- Foreign influences.; Exoticism in art -- Europe.; Acculturation -- Europe -- History.; Indigenous peoples -- Social life and customs -- Public opinion.; Europeans -- Foreign countries -- Attitudes -- History.; Europe -- Civilization -- Foreign influences.
Description: In Infelicities Peter Mason explores the texts, paintings, drawings, photographs, and museum displays in which the exotic has been represented from the early modern period to the present. He describes the unique iconography that Europeans developed to convey the exotic and the means they employed to display it once artifacts were brought to Europe.

In both instances, the exotic object is taken out of its original context and given a meaning and significance it never had; this new meaning and significance, Mason argues, are derived from the imposition of European cultural values and the need to recontextualize the object in a European setting.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [197]-244) and index.