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Chang and Eng Reconnected

The Original Siamese Twins in American Culture

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Chang and Eng Reconnected

By: Cynthia Wu
Narrated by: Kathleen Godwin
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About this listen

Conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker have fascinated the world since the 19th century. In her captivating book, Chang and Eng Reconnected, Cynthia Wu traces the "Original Siamese Twins" through the terrain of American culture, showing how their inseparability underscored tensions between individuality and collectivity in the American popular imagination. Using letters, medical documents and exhibits, literature, art, film, and family lore, Wu provides a trans-historical analysis that presents the Bunkers as both a material presence and as metaphor. She also shows how the twins figure in representations of race, disability, and science in fictional narratives about nation building. As astute entrepreneurs, the twins managed their own lives; nonetheless, as Chang and Eng Reconnected shows, American culture has always viewed them through the multiple lenses of difference.

The book is published by Temple University Press.

©2012 Temple University (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks Americas Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences United States World Literature

Critic reviews

"Cynthia Wu has written a brilliant book. It is not only enjoyable to read while revealing new insights and interpretations on the particular case of Chang and Eng Bunker, but it also challenges academic disciplinary perceptions in innovative ways." ( H-Net)
"Full of fascinating details unearthed by Wu's thorough research -- not just about the Bunkers, but about the social treatment and subsequent fate of 'freaks' generally." ( Fortean Times)
"Wu's book will surely influence many scholars in their analyses of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability." ( Disability & Society)
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