Zwischen Abenteuer, Wissenschaft und Kolonialismus: Der deutsche Afrikadiskursim 18. Und 19. Jahrhundert by Matthias Fiedler

Abstract

MLR, I02.2, 2007 597 allows him todefine the social and cultural function of thedebates as one of collective self-assurance or self-definition vis-a-vis the extreme, the abhorrent, the unknown. Those readerswho arewilling to read past some high-brow theory and tolerate some convoluted, quotation-soaked, and occasionally rather inflated language will be re warded with a thrillingjourney into a strange and fascinating area of encounter with extremes and with an enhanced understanding of the attraction inherent in under taking, reporting, and fictionalizing such transgressions. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, MAYNOOTH FLORIAN KROBB Zwischen Abenteuer,Wissenschaft undKolonialismus: Der deutscheAfrikadiskurs imi8. und I9. Jahrhundert. By MATTHIAS FIEDLER. Cologne: Bohlau. 2005. 30I PP. E34g90. ISBN 978-3-412-I9Io5-4. Since the I990S, postcolonial enquiry inGerman literature,culture, and history has made the rediscovery and re-evaluation ofGerman colonialism and Germany's wider implication in the cultural history of European colonialism a new focus both in Anglo-American German studies, which pioneered this development, and inGer many itself.Fiedler's study,which is based on his doctoral thesis at theUniversity ofGottingen (2004), contributes to the further mapping of this increasingly popular field by critically reviewing the development of Germany's discourse about Africa from theEnlightenment to imperial colonialism around I900 and by offeringvaluable new insight into the crucial role of travelwriting about Africa in the emergence of German colonial discourse. Tracing continuities between eighteenth-century 'colo nial fantasies' (as Susanne Zantop called them) and late nineteenth-century colonial discourse, Fiedler provides furtherevidence ofGermany's full implication in thecul turalhistory ofEuropean colonialism, while also supporting recenthistorical research into the significance of laternineteenth-century colonial discourse for the politics of German national identity both before and during Germany's short-lived colonial empire (I884-19I8). Fiedler's analysis ofboth literaryand non-literary sources illustrates theemergence of a set of tropes in eighteenth-century writing about Africa and Africans (African nature vs. European culture; the 'ugliness' of the black body; African inferiority justifying European guidance; etc.), which continue to inform nineteenth-century literature and travelwriting, while gradually transforming into the colonial ideology of European superiority and African development through European colonization. Fiedler's earliest example is Peter Kolb's account of his residence in South Africa (17I9), which already exhibits the emerging 'colonial gaze' by highlighting theHot tentots' amenability toWestern education (p. 45). In his discussion of Christoph Martin Wieland's fictionalReise des PriestersAbulfauaris ins innere Afrika ( 768), he thenhighlights the dilemma of critical exoticism, sinceWieland critiques Rousseau's concept of the 'noble savage' and exposes the (gendered) violence of colonial conquest, while at the same time reinforcing theEnlightenment's vision of cultural development defined by Europe. The monograph's centrepiece, however, isa detailed discussion of the travel writing by German nineteenth-century explorers inAfrica such as Heinrich Barth, Georg Schweinfurth, Gustav Nachtigal, Gerhart Rohlfs, and Hermann von Wissmann. Fiedler illustrates the crucial role of these publications inpromoting growing public interest inAfrica since the i85os and in shaping the emerging discourse about Ger many's own colonial involvement inAfrica. His discussion also notes a shift in themes and style fromscientificaccounts in thecontext of contemporary geography tocolonial narratives of heroic adventure and conquest. And yet Fiedler finds recurring narra tive tropes (such as the symbolic scenes of departure from themargins of European 598 Reviews civilization into the 'darkcontinent') and a conspicuous reluctance throughout toen gage incross-cultural encounter. German nineteenth-century travelwriting presents Africa as empty landscape or as evidence of preconceived stereotypes about Africans while at thesame timeconstructing theGerman travellers as 'heroes of science' whose achievements compensate for the lack ofGerman colonial power (p. 139). Preparing the ground forGerman colonialism, this type of travelwriting was ultimately to provide some of itsauthors with a career inGermany's emerging colonial empire. Turning to other instances of the increasingly popular colonial discourse about Africa, Fiedler readsWilhelm Raabe's novel Abu Telfan (I865) as a literary reponse to thisdiscourse, a critique ofGerman exoticism and European presumptions of cul tural superiority, but he argues thatRaabe's technique of comparing and contrasting Africa and Germany ultimately reinforces colonial tropes.Wider engagement with relevant specialist research could have helped to take this discussion further.The popular culture shows of the...