Germans and Indians: fantasies, encounters, projections

Uittreksel

"For over three hundred years, the Indian peoples of North America have attracted the interest of diverse segments of German society--missionaries, writers, playwrights, anthropologists, filmmakers, hobbyists, enthusiasts, and even royalty. Today, German scholars continue to be drawn to Indians, as is the German public: tour groups from Germany frequent Plains reservations in the summer, and so-called Indianerclubs, where participants dress up in 'authentic' Indian costume, are common. In this fascinating volume, scholars and writers illuminate the longstanding connection between Germans and the Indians. From a range of disciplines and occupations, the contributors probe the historical and cultural roots of the interactions between Germans and Indians and examine how such encounters have been represented in different media over the centuries. Particularly important are reflections and insights by modern Native American writers on this relationship. Of special concern is why such a connection has endured. As the contributors make clear, the encounters between Germans and Indians were also imagined, sometimes as fantasy, sometimes as projection, both resonating deeply with the cultural sensibilities and changing historical circumstances of Germans over the years"--Back cover.

Inhoud

Close encounters : Deutsche and Indianer / Susanne Zantop -- Compatriots / Emma Lee Warrior -- Germany's Indians in a European perspective / Christian F. Feest -- Historical encounters across five centuries / Colin G. Calloway -- American Indians and Moravians in Southern New England / Corinna Dally-Starna ; William A. Starna -- "The complexion of my country" : the German as "other" in colonial Pennsylvania / Liam Riordan -- German immigrants and intermarriage with American Indians in the Pacific Northwest / Russel Lawrence Barsh -- A nineteenth-century Ojibwa conquers Germany / Bernd Peyer -- German Indianthusiasm : a social constructed German national(ist) myth / Hartmut Lutz -- Nineteenth-century German representations of Indians from experience / Jeffrey L. Sammons -- Indians playing, Indians praying : native Americans in Wild West shows and Catholic missions / Karl Markus Kreis -- Germans playing Indian / Marta Carlson -- Indian impersonation as historical surrogation / Katrin Sieg -- Between Karl May and Karl Marx : the DEFA Indianerfilme / Gerd Gemünden -- "Stranger and stranger" : the (German) other in Canadian indigenous texts / Renate Eigenbrod -- An introduction to Louise Erdrich's The antelope wife / Ute Lischke-McNab -- "Blitzkuchen" : an excerpt from The antelope wife / Louise Erdrich.