King Mongkut: Man, Myth, and Misrepresentation
$5.95
6 word format
document in English
literature
presentation
published 24/04/2007
review : Completed
level : Advanced
requested 4 times
Summary
Fewer stories of a Western encounter with the “Other” have been more popular than that of the English governess Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut (Rama IV) of Siam, now Thailand. The fascination began with the two books written by Anna herself, The English Governess at the Siamese Court and The Romance of the Harem, published in 1870 and 1873, respectively. Her story did not become famous, however, until Margaret Landon condensed the two books into the best-selling Anna and the King of Siam in 1944 (Kim 2). Two years later, the book was made into a movie starring Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison then a Broadway production as a musical play by Rodgers and Hammerstein with Gertrude Lawrence as Anna and Yul Brynner as the king. The most famous adaptation of the story was the 1956 Hollywood film entitled The King and I, with Deborah Kerr as the English school teacher opposite Brynner. It raised a scandal in Thailand for its ridiculous representation of King Mongkut, one of Thailand’s national heroes, and was consequently banned there. Nearly a half-century later in 1999, Twentieth Century Fox decided to revive Anna Leonowens’ story once again, supposedly determined this time, however, to give an accurate portrayal of Siam and its monarch. Although Anna and the King corrects many of the earlier faults of The King and I and even adds outright jibes at imperialism and the attitudes of British colonizers, it is still infused with the idea of the romanticized encounter with the exotic “Other” and displays evidence of newer, more insidious forms of colonialism that continue to pervade Western-dominated institutions like the media.
Table of Contents
- The real King Mongkut
- In her books, Anna claims to have been born in Carnarvon, Wales in 1834 to a good family
- The portrayal of King Mongkut in The King and I
- The king is not the only character to receive ill treatment at the hands of the script writers
- The general untruths found in the story
- The elaborate 'Small House of Uncle Thomas' performance
- The King and I has been banned in Thailand
- Anna and the King
Most downloaded documents over 30 days in literature Latest in the category literature From the same author
knowledge network
