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mon Japon: the revue theater as a technology of Japanese imperialism
Author(s) -
ROBERTSON JENNIFER
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1995.22.4.02a00160
Subject(s) - orientalism , nationalism , colonialism , ideology , gender studies , national identity , identity (music) , human sexuality , sociology , ethnic group , cultural imperialism , history , literature , aesthetics , anthropology , art , political science , politics , law , archaeology
In this article I examine the role of the montage‐like revue theater in dramatizing and aestheticizing Japanese imperial ideology in the first half of this century. The all‐female Takarazuka Revue serves as an organizing framework for exploring the general pattern of theater‐state relations during this time. I review intersections of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationalism on and off the revue stage together with the specific Japanese orientalism informing the imperialist project and the formation of national identity. As a technology of imperialism, the revue theater helped to bridge the gap between perceptions of colonized others and actual colonial encounters; it was one way of linking imperialist fantasies and colonial realities.