A Confidence Man in Africa: Karl May and the German Colonial Enterprise
Loading...
Date
2008
Authors
Advisor
Editor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Dutch and South African Studies, Faculty of English
Title alternative
Abstract
This paper argues for the importance of studying the German popular fiction writer Karl May (1842-1912) from a postcolonial studies perspective, both within the context
of the nineteenth century German imperial project and the Euro-American tradition of
ethnic impersonation. May’s ethnographic adventure stories were, and to some extent still are, a considerable cultural force in Germany and Poland, where they are regularly reprinted, televised, parodied, and read aloud to children. Focusing on the power-knowledge nexus in May’s travel narratives, this paper explores the role May’s fiction played in the formation of German national identity, May’s ambivalent attitude towards the colonization of Africa, his strategies of building ethnographic authority, his contradictory attitudes towards the racial Other, and his own lifelong performances of Otherness.
Description
Sponsor
Keywords
Karl May, colonialism, popular ethnography, German national identity, primitivism, ethnic impersonation
Citation
Werkwinkel vol. 3(1), 2008, pp.89-110
Seria
ISBN
ISSN
1896-3307