Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870 (Post-Contemporary Interventions)

Since Germany became a colonial power relatively late, postcolonial theorists and histories of colonialism have thus far paid little attention to it. Uncovering Germany’s colonial legacy and imagination, Susanne Zantop reveals the significance of colonial fantasies—a kind of colonialism without colonies—in the formation of German national identity. Through readings of historical, anthropological, literary, and popular texts, Zantop explores imaginary colonial encounters of "Germans" with "natives" in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century literature, and shows how these colonial fantasies acted as a rehearsal for actual colonial ventures in Africa, South America, and the Pacific. From as early as the sixteenth century, Germans preoccupied themselves with an imaginary drive for colonial conquest and possession that eventually grew into a collective obsession. Zantop illustrates the gendered character of Germany’s colonial imagination through critical readings of popular novels, plays, and travel literature that imagine sexual conquest and surrender in colonial territory—or love and blissful domestic relations between colonizer and colonized. She looks at scientific articles, philosophical essays, and political pamphlets that helped create a racist colonial discourse and demonstrates that from its earliest manifestations, the German colonial imagination contained ideas about a specifically German national identity, different from, if not superior to, most others. Contents 6 Preface and Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 12 I Armchair Conquistadors; or, The Quest for “New Germany” 28 1 Tiranos animales o alemanes: Germans and the “Conquest” 29 2 A Conquest of the Intellect 42 II Colonizing Theory: Gender, Race, and the Search for a National Identity 54 3 Gendering the “Conquest” 57 4 Racializing the Colony 77 5 Patagons and Germans 92 III Colonial Families; or, Displacing the Colonizers 110 6 Fathers and Sons: Donnerstag and Freitag, Campe and Krusoe 113 7 Husbands and Wives: Colonialism Domesticated 132 8 Betrothal and Divorce; or, Revolution in the House 152 IV Virgin Islands, Teuton Conquerors 174 9 The German Columbus 177 10 The Second Discovery 184 11 Colonial Fantasies Revisited 202 Epilogue: Vitzliputzli’s Revenge 213 Notes 222 Bibliography 274 Index 298 "Since Germany became a colonial power relatively late, postcolonial theorists and histories of colonialism have thus far paid little attention to it. Uncovering Germany's colonial legacy and imagination, Susanne Zantop reveals the significance of colonial fantasies - a kind of colonialism without colonies - in the formation of German national identity. Through readings of historical, anthropological, literary, and popular texts, Zantop explores imaginary colonial encounters of "Germans" with "natives" in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century literature, and shows how these colonial fantasies acted as a rehearsal for actual colonial ventures in Africa, South America, and the Pacific."--Jacket Traces German desires to discover, conquer and dominate 'new worlds' -- real and imagined-- expressed in stories and literature during the century preceding any actual German colonization Susanne Zantop. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [211]-285) And Index.