Topic: German Colonialism: History, Theory, Literature

Three credit hour course; meets 5:45-7:00 p.m., MW in BH 314.

This colloquium will survey some of the exciting, recent scholarship
charting German colonialism, which has given new impulses to the field of
German studies. Yet there is not as yet a precise fit between a
theoretically informed German studies--which has tried to incorporate
theoretical paradigms from British Post/colonial Studies especially--and
the history and literature of German colonialism. This colloquium will
examine how the specificity of German colonialism as distinct from other
national traditions of imagining, building, and ruling empire, calls into
question common premises in Post/colonial Studies, which would need to be
revised. We will thus sort through the theoretical models and literary
tropes that have defined colonial studies so far, and interrogate their
applicability to our field. Conversely, we will ask how German colonial
literature and history reconfigure colonial culture studies with its
Anglophone bias.

Readings will include Franon's BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS; Jan Mohammed's
«Manichaean Allegory»; Gayatri Spivak's «Can the
Subaltern Speak?»; Stoler's RACE AND THE EDUCATION OF DESIRE;
McClintock's IMPERIAL LEATHER; and Jürgen Osterhammel's DER
KOLONIALISMUS. About German colonial literature, history, and theory we
will read Susanne Zantop's COLONIAL FANTASIES; excerpts from Lora
Wildenthal's COLONIZERS AND CITIZENS; Marcia Klotz's WHITE WOMEN AND THE
DARK CONTINENT: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN GERMAN COLONIAL DISCOURSE; Lennox
et al's THE IMPERIALIST IMAGINATION; and essays by Arlene Teraoka, Russell
Berman, Sander Gilman, Leslie Adelson, Nina Berman, and Tina Campt. In
addition, we will look at the works of dada artist Hannah Höch; view
the film REITER FÜR OSTAFRIKA; consider the performative genre of the
VÖLKERSCHAU; and read literary texts by Klopstock, Karl May, Hans
Grimm, Hubert Fichte, Uwe Timm, and Jeannette Lander.

Readings are in English and in German; there will be two conference-
length (7-8 page) papers. If you wish to get a head start, read Zantop's
study.

Texts:
(+) Osterhammel, KOLONIALISMUS: GESCHICHTE, FORMEN, FOLGEN
(+) Timm, MORENGA
(+) Zantop, COLONIAL FANTASIES: CONQUEST, FAMILY, AND NATION IN
PRECOLONIAL GERMANY, 1770-1870