Table Of ContentColonial Fantasies
Post-ContemporaryInterventions
SeriesEditors:StanleyFish and FredricJameson
Colonial Fantasies
Conquest, Family, and Nation
in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870
Susanne Zantop
DukeUniversityPress DurhamandLondon1997
© 1997DukeUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved
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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.
