Colonial fantasies
Subtitle: conquest, family, and nation in precolonial Germany, 1770-1870
By: Susanne Zantop.
Series: Post-contemporary interventions
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Durham, N.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
Subjects: German literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Nationalism -- Germany -- History; German literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; National characteristics, German, in literature; Imperialism -- History -- 19th century; Military history in literature; Nationalism in literature; Colonies in literature; Family in literature; Germany -- Foreign relations -- 1789-1900
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-285) and index.