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Woman Between Two Kingdoms
Dara Rasami and the Making of Modern Thailand
Leslie Castro-Woodhouse (Author)
9781501755507
Paperback / softback, published 15 May 2021
198 pages, 8 b&w halftones, 1 b&w line drawing - 8 Halftones, black and white - 1 Line drawings, black and white
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.454 kg
Castro-Woodhouse brings to life Rasami and the other consorts who are otherwise flattened by historical accounts.
Woman between Two Kingdoms explores the story of Dara Rasami, one of 153 wives of King Chulalongkorn of Siam during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in a kingdom near Siam called Lan Na, Dara served as both hostage and diplomat for her family and nation. Thought of as a harem by the West, Siam's Inner Palace actually formed a nexus between the domestic and the political. Dara's role as an ethnic Other among the royal concubines assisted the Siamese in both consolidating the kingdom's territory and building a local version of Europe's hierarchy of civilizations. Dara Rasami's story provides a fresh perspective on both the sociopolitical roles played by Siamese palace women, and Siam's response to the intense imperialist pressures it faced in the late nineteenth century. Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.
1. Introducing Lan Na, Siam, and the Inland Constellation
2. Dara Rasami's Career in the Siamese Royal Palace
3. Performing Identity and Ethnicity in the Siamese Court
4. Inventing Lan Na Tradition and Dara Rasami's Legacy
5. Intertwined Fates: Monarchy, Women's Bodies, and the Thai State