Imagining Global Amsterdam History, Culture, and Geography in a World City De Waard, M
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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Imagining Global Amsterdam History, Culture, and Geography in a World City de Waard, M. DOI 10.5117/9789089643674 Publication date 2012 Document Version Final published version License CC BY-NC-ND Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): de Waard, M. (Ed.) (2012). Imagining Global Amsterdam: History, Culture, and Geography in a World City. (Cities and Cultures). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789089643674 General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:06 Oct 2021 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.