McDonagh, J. and Wickes, B. (2020) Introduction: The nineteenth-century opium complex: From Thomas Love Peacock to Sherlock Holmes. Literature and History, 29(1), pp. 3-18. (doi: 10.1177/0306197320907437)
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Abstract
This introduction to the special issue proposes that two discrete nineteenth-century histories of opium – a literary history, initiated by the drug confessions of De Quincey, and a colonial history, exemplified by the commercial activities of the East India Company (in which Thomas Love Peacock participated) in cultivating opium in Bengal for export to China, leading to the first Opium War – are common elements in a nineteenth-century ‘opium complex’, a set of interlocking practices of individuals and (quasi)state actors, extending across the globe. Sherlock Holmes detective stories are read as compressed registers of tensions that inhere in this complex.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | The authors are grateful to the European Research Fund and to King’s College London Arts and Humanities Research Fund for supporting the workshops at which research for this essay was carried out, and at which initial versions of the papers in this special edition were presented. |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Wickes, Dr Briony |
| Authors: | McDonagh, J., and Wickes, B. |
| College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature |
| Journal Name: | Literature and History |
| Publisher: | SAGE |
| ISSN: | 0306-1973 |
| ISSN (Online): | 2050-4594 |
| Published Online: | 11 May 2020 |
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