Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870 PDF
Preview Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870
Colonial Fantasies Post-ContemporaryInterventions SeriesEditors:StanleyFish and FredricJameson Colonial Fantasies Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870 Susanne Zantop DukeUniversityPress DurhamandLondon1997 © 1997DukeUniversityPress Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper 00 TypesetinSabonbyKeystoneTypesetting,Inc. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataappear onthelastprintedpageofthisbook. Contents PrefaceandAcknowledgments Vll Introduction I I ArmchairConquistadors;or,TheQuestfor"NewGermany" 17 I Tiranosanimales0 alemanes: Germansandthe"Conquest" 18 2 AConquestoftheIntellect 3I II ColonizingTheory: Gender,Race,andtheSearchforaNationalIdentity 43 3 Genderingthe "Conquest" 46 4 RacializingtheColony 66 5 PatagonsandGermans 8I III Colonial Families;or, DisplacingtheColonizers 99 6 FathersandSons: DonnerstagandFreitag,Campeand Krusoe 102 7 HusbandsandWives: ColonialismDomesticated 121 8 BetrothalandDivorce;or,RevolutionintheHouse 141 IV Virgin Islands,TeutonConquerors 163 9 TheGermanColumbus 166 10 TheSecondDiscovery 173 I I ColonialFantasiesRevisited 191 Epilogue:Vitzliputzli'sRevenge 202 Notes 211 Bibliography 263 Index 287 Preface and Acknowledgments Itisalwayscurioustonotetowhatextentourcriticalinterests aretied to, or emanate from, our autobiographies. As is by now well known, moreoftenthannotwechooseoursubjectmatterandapproachnotby an act of free will but because of historical experiences and chance encounters beyond our control. This is certainly the case with this study. WhenIconceivedofaninvestigationintoGermanfantasiesofSouth America, I was, on the surface at least, finally connecting two of my long-standing academic interests, an interest in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German history and literature with an interest in everything Latin American, from politics and literatures to the many diverse cultures. Little did I realize then that I was also, in a way, reproducingmyowngeographic andintellectualtrajectoryand, atthe same time, attempting to exorcize some ofthe demons Ihad collected along the way: the trajectory from Berlin, Germany, to the United States,andfromtheretoSouthAmerica,thenSpain,andfinallybackto the United States,first as a student, then as the wife ofan employee of u.S. miningcompanies,thenasanacademic; andthetrajectoryfrom a self-satisfiedanti-imperialistsixties radical, to aguilt-ridden, reluctant participantinU.S. imperialism,to acriticofthecultureofimperialism andmyowninvolvementinit.ThequestionsthataroseinmymindasI examined my own contradictions form the understory, the backdrop against which this study developed and which it constantly engages, albeitonasubliminallevel:howasastudentinGermany,Ihadcheered the Chinese Cultural Revolution as "the end to all bureaucratic os sification";howmyhusbandandI,livingcomfortablyoffsalariespro videdbyAmericancompaniesinCostaRica,haddemonstratedagainst "MamitaYunai,"theUnitedFruitCompany;orhowIwassidingwith the "oppressed" in the safe haven ofNew England academe. As Iwas exploring"German"fictions ofotherness, Iwasaskingmyselftowhat extentmyvision,myquestionsandhangups,hadbeenshapedbygrow ing up in a German cultural environment and to what extent I was viii Preface unwittinglyreproducingwhatIwasanalyzing:theexoticistfascination with South America, the condescending, although well-meant, pater nalistassimilationfantasies,theself-righteousnesswithwhichthewrit ersandcriticsIexaminedclaimedtherighttospeak"for"othersandto integrateandsubsumeothersintotheirracialormoralcategories. AsThomasPavelhasrecentlyremindedus,"politicalcritics"runthe risk ofgetting "carried away by commitment to their own concerns," neglecting,asaconsequence,"thetext'sownefforttomoldtheiratten tion and leadtheir gaze"l- a useful reminder. Although one could, of course,retortthatthisriskissharedbyallofuswhointerprettexts,and thatnonpoliticalcriticismtendstooverlookimportanttextualcompo nentsaswell.The"colonialinterpretation"ofThe Tempestcouldonly be "first invented by the supporters of British imperialism" (I25), be causeCaliban'spositioninthedramaoftheencounterallowedforsuch aninterpretation.Likewise,itisonlypossibletodiscoverilliberal,colo nialist undertones in seemingly liberal, anticolonialist texts ifthey are there. In order to avoid (too) one-sided readings and facile conclusions, I have consulted with many friends and colleagues. To all ofthem who were willing to read the totality or portions ofthis study and to chal lenge me in discussions, I am deeply grateful: Michael Ermarth, Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Gerd Gemiinden, Marianne Hirsch, Robert Holub, MaryKelley, LawrenceKritzman, SaraLennox, SilviaSpitta, LeoSpit zer, Virginia Swain, Diana Taylor, and Daniel Wilson. My dear col league Walter Arndt took great pains to reproduce in English, rhyme andall,someofthemostawfulpoemsandcolonialistpropaganda.His impish humor helped sustain me in my more depressed moments. It is indeed a pleasure and a privilege to be surrounded by such a commu nityofscholarsandfriends. I also want to thank my former students who assisted me in the bibliographical work over the years, and with cleaning up the manu script, Mark Buschmann, Lisa Gates, Roland Schweighofer, and Re becca McCallum- and the three staffpersons in the Baker Library at Dartmouth College who were instrumental in locating obscure texts: Patsy Carter, Marianne Hraibi, and Lois Krieger. And last, but not least, Iwant to express my appreciation for the Howard Foundation, the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Marion and Jasper WhitingFoundation,andtheJohnCarterBrownLibraryfor providing mewithgrantstosupportmeduringmyyearsofprimaryresearch. No effort of this sort can be sustained without moral and logistic Preface ix supportfromone'smostimmediatesurroundings.AsIwasworkingon familial fantasies ofcolonialrelationsandoncolonialistperversionsof the familial model, I became keenly aware of how wonderfully sup portive and nurturing even the much-maligned nuclear family can be. This book is therefore dedicated to them: to my mother, Marianne, whose unshaking faith in my ability to finish projects energized me throughout my life; to my father,Joachim, whose enthusiasmfor can nibals and Amazons translated into many visits to libraries and much epistolary exchange on the subject matter; to my daughters, Veronika andMariana,whoborewithmethroughthickandthin,withleniency, love, and good humor; and to Half, in more than one sense my better half. Without them, this project would neither have been started nor completed.
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