The Orient of the Boulevards

the long version

Angela C. Pao draws upon the methodologies of theater and cultural studies to examine the construction of "the Orient" on the Parisian stage during the nineteenth century, the period of France's first imperial expansions into North Africa and the Middle East. Mining rich archival resources of play-texts, censorship reports, critical reviews, and contemporary writings on performance practice, The Orient of the Boulevards reveals the complex processes by which the institutions of popular culture helped shape nineteenth-century notions of race, ethnicity, and nationality.