The Local as Colonial Subject: Imperialism and Ethnography in Gerhart Hauptmann's Novellas Bahnwärter Thiel and Fasching

Situated amid the stately pine forests of the Spreewald, Gerhart Hauptmann's Brandenburg novellas Bahnwärter Thiel (1888) and Fasching (1887) could hardly offer a more "German" setting. Yet rather than present an intimate depiction of a quaint corner of Germany, these naturalistically...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The German Quarterly 2016, Vol.89 (1), p.1-16
Main Author: Howards, Alyssa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquisitions & mergers
Civilization
Colonialism
Cultural Isolation
Ethnography
Families & family life
Foregrounding
Foreign Policy
Gerhart Hauptmann
German language
German literature
Hauptmann, Gerhart (1862-1946)
Imagery
Imperial Germany
Imperialism
Individual Characteristics
Nationalism
Naturalism
Novels
Personality
Personality Traits
Physical Characteristics
Scholars
Tales
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Situated amid the stately pine forests of the Spreewald, Gerhart Hauptmann's Brandenburg novellas Bahnwärter Thiel (1888) and Fasching (1887) could hardly offer a more "German" setting. Yet rather than present an intimate depiction of a quaint corner of Germany, these naturalistically candid tales of family tragedies offer imagery that extends beyond their geographic boundaries. Given the imperial context of the novellas, as well as Hauptmann's anthropologically flavored descriptions of his characters and their milieu, they are due for a thicker reading, one that is mindful of nineteenth-century Germany's collective ethnographic curiosity and the period's colonial discourse on exotic locales and their perceived primitive inhabitants. By foregrounding the distinctive, if not alien, characteristics of the protagonists and their families, as well as the region's geographic and cultural isolation, Hauptmann reveals the heightened ethnographic awareness that pervaded imperial Germany, and reveals a connection between colonialism and Social Darwinism that was not limited to overseas colonies.
ISSN:0016-8831
1756-1183
DOI:10.1111/gequ.10252