ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT and TRANSCULTURAL MEMORY By
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Alexander von Humboldt and Transcultural Memory Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Howell, James Ford Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 29/09/2021 16:19:39 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625454 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT AND TRANSCULTURAL MEMORY by James Ford Howell __________________________ Copyright © James Ford Howell 2017 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN TRANSCULTURAL GERMAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2017 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by James Ford Howell, titled Alexander von Humboldt and Transcultural Memory and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 4/21/2017 Steven D. Martinson _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 4/21/2017 Susan Crane _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 4/21/2017 Thomas Kovach _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 4/21/2017 David J. Gramling Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 4/21/2017 Dissertation Director: Steven D. Martinson 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: James Ford Howell 3 For my mother and father. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................ page 7 Introduction ................................................................................................ page 8 Chapter One: From Cultural to Transcultural Memory ................................................................................................ page 16 I. Cultural Memory................................................................. page 17 The Current State of Cultural Memory Studies...................... page 18 Functional and Stored Memory........................................... page 22 The Importance of Forgetting............................................. page 27 II. Memory Sites..................................................................... page 29 III. Transcultural Memory....................................................... page 32 The Centrality of Trauma in Transcultural Memory Studies............................................................................ page 38 The Attack on National Culture as a Framework of Analysis.......................................................................... page 40 IV. A Critique and Reformulation of Transcultural Memory............................................................................ page 44 V. Conclusion......................................................................... page 48 Chapter Two: Charting Humboldt through the Ages ................................................................................................ page 50 I. Humboldt in Germany........................................................ page 51 Humboldt from the Nineteenth Century through the Weimar Republic......................................................................... page 51 Humboldt in the Third Reich.............................................. page 57 Humboldt in a Divided Germany........................................ page 58 II. Humboldt in the United States.......................................... page 72 Humboldt before the First World War................................. page 72 Why Was Humboldt Forgotten?......................................... page 77 5 III. Conclusion....................................................................... page 81 Chapter Three: From the Academic to the Public Sphere ................................................................................................ page 83 I. Continuity and Change in the German Humboldt Memory Site....................................................................... page 87 II. The Reintroduction of the U.S.-American Humboldt Memory Site...................................................................... page 91 III. The Genesis of the Transcultural Humboldt Memory Site................................................................................... page 94 Historical Impact.............................................................. page 95 Modernity and Globalization.............................................. page 101 Environmentalist avant la lettre.......................................... page 105 IV. Conclusion....................................................................... page 108 Chapter Four: The Constitution of a Transcultural Memory Site ................................................................................................ page 109 I. Humboldt and Science........................................................ page 111 II. The Great Teacher............................................................. page 126 III. Humboldt and Modernity................................................. page 129 IV. Humboldt, Ecology, and Environmentalism.................... page 136 V. Conclusion......................................................................... page 140 Chapter Five: Measuring the Transcultural World ................................................................................................ page 142 I. The Transcultural Alexander von Humboldt Memory Site...................................................................................... page 142 II. Surveying the Transcultural Landscape............................ page 147 Works Cited ................................................................................................ page 152 6 Abstract This dissertation focuses on a paradigm shift that is taking place within the field of cultural memory studies. Recently, several scholars from around the world have focused on the possibility of transcultural memory and the transcultural construction of meaning. My research offers a constructive addition to the current theory, namely that transcultural memory is not as broad and universal as many understand. To support this argument, I have taken the Alexander von Humboldt reception history within the United States and Germany to demonstrate that transcultural memory coalesces around specific memory sites that are mutually constructed among cultures for a common purpose. I show that in the years following German reunification, the U.S.-American and German textual representation, use, and understanding of Alexander von Humboldt have come to be practically identical. I go on to posit that it is in such specific instances that transcultural memory is created, and not through a supposedly universal and transnational remembrance of historical events. My research clarifies certain concepts and elements regarding the turn to the transcultural in recent memory studies in that it demands a much more specific and concrete understanding of the processes at work in meaning making in an interconnected and globalized world. In order to show such a shared transcultural understanding, I have collected and studied all published materials regarding Alexander von Humboldt in the United States and Germany since the year 1990. In this way, my dissertation serves not only to support my central thesis regarding the constitution of transcultural memory, it also functions as a detailed textual survey of Humboldt within the two cultures over the last twenty-five years. 7 Introduction "Humboldt ist überall." So reported Nicola Kuhn in Der Tagesspiegel on 4 February, 2017. Such a sentiment is easy to understand. From bestselling books in the United States to new cultural centers in Germany, if one is looking for him, Alexander von Humboldt does indeed seem to be everywhere. What is much more fascinating than Humboldt's newfound prominence in certain cultural discourses, however, is the extent to which his representation is practically identical in seemingly disparate and different cultural