In Her Investigation of German Colonial Fantasies, Suzanne Zantop
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: BRAZIL AFTER HUMBOLDT – TRIANGULAR PERCEPTIONS AND THE COLONIAL GAZE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TRAVEL NARRATIVES Cerue Kesso Diggs, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Elke P. Frederiksen Department of Germanic Studies School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures This project is a study of nine German travel narratives on Brazil written between 1803 and 1899, identifying their contribution to the discourses on German national identity in the nineteenth century. Famous German explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1834) influenced travelers to explore Brazil, the part of South America that he was not able to enter for political reasons. I approach their accounts from new historicist and post/colonial perspectives. My thesis is that these narratives help construct a German national identity that occupies a fluid (colonial) position in response to diverse “Others” encountered in colonial Brazil. While contributing to the study of travel literature, my dissertation contributes significantly to the field of German Cultural Studies by applying a post/colonial approach to the reading of German texts. Chapter I locates my investigation theoretically at the intersection between post/colonialism – the critique of colonization and colonial ideology – and new historicism – the reading of texts within their historical contexts, identifying discourses by juxtaposing them with various other contemporary texts. Katrin Sieg’s concept of triangular thinking and Susanne Zantop’s idea of colonial fantasies are instrumental in my reading. Chapter II places my selection of travelogues in the historical contexts of nineteenth-century Germany and Brazil, underscoring their paths to nationhood and changes in Wissenschaft. Chapter III shows that Alexander von Humboldt’s influence on German explorers of Brazil is more evident in the scope of their research than in their writing styles. Chapter IV interprets German travelers as surprised yet critical flâneurs in Rio de Janeiro, as skeptical listeners to the stories of German immigrants, and seekers of Germania in their responses to Brazilian women. Chapter V shows how a German understanding of ‘race’ as an ingredient of national identity colors the travelers’ anthropological observations of blacks and native populations in Brazil. Through various triangulations, German travelers to Brazil ambivalently identified with Portuguese colonizers and, at times, with colonized subjects (native populations, blacks), constructing diverse colonial/nationalistic fantasies in their narratives. All of these texts bare witness to specific historical events, and provide a comparative view of nationalism in nineteenth-century Germany and Brazil. BRAZIL AFTER HUMBOLDT- TRIANGULAR PERCEPTIONS AND THE COLONIAL GAZE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN TRAVEL NARRATIVES by Cerue K. Diggs Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Advisory Committee: Professor Elke Frederiksen, Chair Professor Rosemarie Oster Professor Guenther Pfister Professor Regina Igel Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakak ©Copyright by Cerue K. Diggs 2008 ii Acknowledgments This project would not have come to reality without the support of a number of people. I would like to thank: Professor Elke P. Frederiksen, a Doktormutter in the true sense of the word, whose guidance, correction, and encouragement have helped move me toward the completion of this study; the Department of Germanic Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, College Park for funding and other resources; Karen Burke and Ilse Daehler for proofreading and helpful translation tips; Pastors Bill and Tootie Benninghoven for encouraging me along; my parents, who instilled in me a love for reading and education; my mother, Fatoumata Y. Diggs, for her presence, many hours of babysitting and countless other forms of support, most of all for cheering me on; my father, Lafayette L. Diggs for believing in me; my daughter, Elinah, for being a patient toddler while her mother was in the library; my husband, Uzoma Opaigbeogu, for his unwavering love, faith and sense of humor; all of the friends, colleagues, former roommates, relatives, other well-wishers and loved-ones too numerous to list here; and finally, the One who does all things well and through whom all things are possible. iii Table of Contents Brazil after Humboldt: An Introduction 1 A. My Path to the Journey 1 B. Journey Mercies 2 C. Description of the Project 4 D. New Historicist Post/colonialism: “German Studies go Post/Colonial” 6 E. Humboldt and South America 9 F. Germania Explores the Tropics 12 G. Organization of the Project 22 Chapter I New Historical Post/colonialism– A Theoretical Approach 25 A. New Historicism: Method or Theory? 25 B Post/colonialism: A Definition 28 C. Post/colonialism in German Studies 38 D. Hybridity, Triangular Perceptions and Anticonquest 56 E. Travel and National Identities 60 Chapter II Historical Context: Two Roads to Nationhood 89 A. Imperialism and Nationalism in Germany and Brazil 90 B. Travel and Wissenschaft in the Nineteenth-Century 106 Chapter III Alexander von Humboldt – Great Predecessor of Nineteenth-Century German Travelers to South America 117 A. Prelude to a Monumental Expedition 118 B. The “German Columbus” 122 C. The “Humboldt Current” 139 Chapter IV Politics and Nationhood – Colonial Gaze from the Margins 146 A. Gazing in Colonial Triangles 146 B. Rio de Janeiro: Flâneurs in a Colonial Metropolis 155 C. The Uncanny Otherness of German Immigrants 186 D. Gender and Nationalism: Women in Brazil 203 Chapter V Wissenschaft, Race and Nationhood 217 A. Anthropology as Wissenschaft 218 B. “Inventions of Race.” Responses to Slavery 229 C. Winnetou Revisited? Responses to Native Populations 239 Conclusion 269 Bibliography 280 iv List of Tables Timetable of the creation of new scientific societies in nineteenth-century Germany 226 1 Brazil after Humboldt: An Introduction Brasilien […] hat seit mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert unter allen Staaten Südamerikas das Interesse des Naturforschers wie des Nationalökonomen, des Kaufmannes wie des Auswanderers am meisten auf sich gezogen. [Among all South American states, Brazil has attracted the attention of researchers as well as national economists, traders as well as immigrants, for more than half a century]. Karl Scherzer, 18571 A. My Path to the Journey: The concept of travel has been more than a literary trope in my experience. Born to a multilingual and multicultural family, and having boarded my first flight as an infant, I developed a world view and an identity located in an inbetween space, later on theorized by critics such as Homi Bhabha and Doris Bachmann-Medick; therefore, my choice of topic pertaining to travel for this project was not unexpected. In May 2002, girded with theoretical training received during my studies, I went to Germany, in pursuit of nineteenth-century travel texts, seeking unexplored territory, so to speak, in this field of research. The following is a description of my journey through this study, which started with my 2002 decision to travel to Berlin and Frankfurt. I begin with a summary of the circumstances and choices that have shaped this project and continue by discussing Alexander von Humboldt’s (1769-1859) relevance to this study as an influential German traveler to South America; I will then present my methodology, which is located at an intersection between two theoretical tendencies: 1 Karl Scherzer was a nineteenth-century Austrian ethnographer, who participated in an expedition (1857- 1859) of the Novara frigate commissioned by Austrian King Ferdinand Maximillian, and led by Commodore Bernhard von Wüllersdorf-Urbair. The commodore kept a journal of the world tour, which became the basis of a travel narrative by Scherzer. 2 post/colonial studies and new historicism. Subsequently I will introduce the ten travel narratives included in this project through a short biography of the travelers and their itineraries. Finally, I will give a preview of things to come in the chapters. B. Journey Mercies My search began in the colonial archives of Frankfurt am Main because of my interest in questions of identity among Afro-Germans. Since Germany’s relatively brief participation in the colonization of Africa during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries partially accounts for the presence of Black people in Germany, an exploration of German texts about Africa seemed a logical continuation of my research. However, the existence of secondary literature in this domain and the proximity of this topic to my own identity location motivated me to continue my search with an eye for a topic that would broaden my horizons even further than my choice of German studies already had. During a visit to the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin I encountered a notable number of nineteenth- and twentieth- century travel diaries in German focusing specifically on Brazil. The lack of secondary literature on this topic seemed to point to a scholarly unbeaten path in the post/colonial discussion of German travel narratives. I was further inspired by a volume entitled Der postkoloniale Blick (The Postcolonial Gaze) edited by Paul Michael Lützeler (1997). It is a collection of excerpts from travel essays and descriptions by contemporary German authors