imagining global amsterdam

318 Pages·2012·4.07 MB·English

imagining
global
amsterdam
edited by marco de waard
History, Culture,
and Geography
in a World City
AMSTERDAM
UNIVERSITY
PRESS
Imagining Global Amsterdam
Cities and Cultures
Cities and Cultures is an interdisciplinary humanities book series addressing the
interrelations between contemporary cities and the cultures they produce. The
series takes a special interest in the impact of globalization on urban space and
cultural production, but remains concerned with all forms of cultural expression
and transformation associated with contemporary cities.
Series editor: Christoph Lindner, University of Amsterdam
Advisory Board:
Ackbar Abbas, University of California, Irvine
Nezar AlSayyad, University of California, Berkeley
Derek Gregory, University of British Columbia
Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, University of New South Wales
Shirley Jordan, Queen Mary, University of London
Geoffrey Kantaris, University of Cambridge
Bill Marshall, University of London
Ginette Verstraete, VU University Amsterdam
Richard J. Williams, University of Edinburgh
Imagining Global
Amsterdam:
History, Culture, and Geography in a World City
Edited by Marco de Waard
amsterdam university press
This book is published in print and online through the online OAPEN library (www.oapen.org)

OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initiative to develop
and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the Humani-
ties and Social Sciences. The OAPEN Library aims to improve the visibility and usability of high
quality academic research by aggregating peer reviewed Open Access publications from across
Europe.
Cover illustration: Photographer: TESS
Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam
Lay-out: Heymans & Vanhove, Goes
isbn 978 90 8964 367 4
e-isbn 978 90 4851 513 4 (pdf)
e-isbn 978 90 4851 799 2 (ePub)
nur 694
Creative Commons License CC BY NC ND
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0)
M. de Waard / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012
Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise).
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced
in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact
the publisher.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 9
1. Amsterdam and the Global Imaginary 9
Marco de Waard
Part I: Historicizing Global Amsterdam 25
2. Imagining Social Change in Early-Modern Amsterdam:
Global Processes, Local Perceptions 27
Ulrich Ufer
3. Amidst Unscrupulous Neighbours: Amsterdam Money
and Foreign Interests in Dutch Patriotic Imagery 45
Dorothee Sturkenboom
4. Visualizing Commerce and Empire: Decorating the Built Environment
of Amsterdam 67
Michael Wintle
5. Romance and Commerce: Imagining Global Amsterdam
in the Contemporary Historical Novel 83
Joyce Goggin and Erinç Salor
6. Dutch Decline Redux: Remembering New Amsterdam
in the Global and Cosmopolitan Novel 101
Marco de Waard
Part II: Amsterdam Global Village: (Inter)National Imaginings 123
7. Form, Punch, Caress: Johan van der Keuken’s Global Amsterdam 125
Patricia Pisters
8. Rembrandt on Screen: Art Cinema, Cultural Heritage,
and the Museumization of Urban Space 143
Marco de Waard
9. Imagining a Global Village: Amsterdam in Janwillem
van de Wetering’s Detective Fiction 169
Sabine Vanacker
10. Amsterdam, City of Sirens: On Hafid Bouazza’s Short Story ‘Apolline’ 187
Henriette Louwerse
5
Part III: Global Amsterdam’s Cultural Geography 199
11. Amsterdam and/as New Babylon: Urban Modernity’s
Contested Trajectories 201
Mark E. Denaci
12. Amsterdam’s Architectural Image from Early-Modern Print Series
to Global Heritage Discourse 219
Freek Schmidt
13. Amsterdam Memorials, Multiculturalism, and the Debate
on Dutch Identity 239
Jeroen Dewulf
14. Graphic Design, Globalization, and Placemaking
in the Neighbourhoods of Amsterdam 255
Bharain Mac an Bhreithiún
15. A Global Red-Light City? Prostitution in Amsterdam as
a Real-and-Imagined Place 273
Michaël Deinema and Manuel B. Aalbers
16. Global Eros in Amsterdam: Religion, Sex, Politics 289
Markha Valenta
Contributors 305
Index 309
6 imagining global amsterdam
Acknowledgments
This collection of essays originates in the conference Imagining Amsterdam: Vi-
sions and Revisions, held at the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam on 19-21 November
2009. Most of the essays brought together here were first presented on that oc-
casion, and subsequently revised and expanded for inclusion in this book. In
preparing their papers for publication, contributors were asked to connect them
to the themes of globalization, the modern urban imaginary, and Amsterdam as
‘global village’ in ways that they thought best given their expertise and concep-
tual interests and concerns. It goes without saying that a project of this scope
and kind cannot take shape without incurring some substantial debts, which I
am very keen to acknowledge here. First of all, my warm thanks go to Joyce
Goggin and to Christoph Lindner for their encouragement, support, and tacti-
cal and practical advice throughout this project’s different stages. Back in 2008,
Joyce joined me in organizing the Imagining Amsterdam conference. Her help in
getting this project off the ground has been essential, and working together was
good fun along the way. Christoph’s support and advice, too, have been crucial,
and I consider it an honour that Imagining Global Amsterdam now launches the
Cities and Cultures book series under his general editorship at AUP. Next, thanks
are due to the Institute of Culture and History at UvA for supporting the con-
ference organizationally and financially, and to Amsterdam University College
for offering additional encouragement and support. I would also like to thank
Miriam Meissner for doing an expert job on the images for this book in her role
as editorial assistant, and AUP for their continued confidence in me and in this
project despite some delays. My final debt is to the students at Amsterdam Uni-
versity College who took my undergraduate courses on ‘Literary Cities’ and ‘The
Modern Urban Novel’ in the Spring terms of 2010 and 2011. Their readiness to
discuss a range of ideas and texts with me that ended up having a role in the mak-
ing of this book was exemplary and inspirational; I can only hope they learned as
much from the experience as I feel I gained by it myself. I dedicate this collection
to all the students that I have had the good fortune to work with at AUC, that
most international of colleges – as another way in which to cheer them on as they
give meaning to what it is to be ‘global citizens’ in Amsterdam.
MdW
7

Introduction
1. Amsterdam and the Global Imaginary
Marco de Waard
Cultural Mobility, Global Performativity
A young woman – immersed, it appears, in her reading – sits on a large, beanbag-
shaped stone chair on Amsterdam’s Dam Square. Her pose, if not exactly com-
fortable, seems balanced enough, although she may have had to put herself into
a squat first over her sizeable black travelling bag. Behind her we see a museum
poster, one of a series put up there by the Amsterdam (Historical) Museum to
advertize its collection when a large bank building was temporarily fenced off in
2009 and 2010. The scene on the poster forms a striking contrast with the calm
of the woman’s pose: a monumental canvas by Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraaten,
it evokes the fire that destroyed Amsterdam’s old town hall in the night of 7
July 1652. The inflamed sky, rendered in part in screaming colours, suggests
the event may have seemed to spell apocalypse to some of those who witnessed
it, including perhaps the painter himself. The fact that the Exchange Bank, too,
was destroyed (it was housed in the same building) offers the potential of a stern
cautionary tale in this city of Calvinists and commerce, of seventeenth-century
republicans and burghers. In fact, a new town hall was already being built; seen
in its entirety, the painting shows the scaffolding behind the waaghuis, suggesting
that the fire only sealed the old building’s appointed fate – and so, could just as
well be cast as a providential sign of benevolence, divine arrangements meshing
nicely with worldly ones.1
The woman, in any case, is oblivious to the painting, as she is to the tourist
draws near where she sits. We know that on her right stands the Nieuwe Kerk,
which regularly houses art and heritage exhibitions. Just in front of her is the
city’s Madame Tussauds; if she looks up, she is likely to see people queue up to
see Rembrandt, Lady Gaga, and the Dalai Lama in wax. Just across from her is
the Palace on the Dam, the building which Beerstraaten saw completed during
his lifetime, and which now functions as a museum and a place for royal recep-
tions. And finally, surrounding all this, we may sense the hustle and bustle and
noise of Amsterdam itself: the shops, the street vendors and ‘living statues’ who
often punctuate Damrak and Dam Square, and other city users, residents, and
travellers. Strikingly, though, in the photograph the modern city is mainly there
by suggestion: it only intrudes in the form of the litter on the woman’s side, on
9