| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This research aims to throw light on foreign communities or districts in Europe, and tries not only to elucidate one aspect of the dynamism of so-called cross-cultural contacts but also to criticize the recent self-righteous tide of 18^<th> century studies. It deals with two specific regions : Russian Livonia, where indigenous people were heathen serfs, and London, where a society of black people existed.
Despite being in the German cultural sphere, Livonia was fully incorporated into the system of Russian serfdom, from German peers to Estonian or Latvian slaves. How were the two German avant-gardes, J.G.Herder and J.M.R.Lenz, influenced living in such a unique domain where German and indigenous cultures were intricately mingled? In order to illuminate this question, Hupel's enlightenment activities, Merkel's radical abolitionist argument, and the anti-slavery movement in Livonia were discussed. Then the issues that were examined thoroughly were how Lenz paved the way for the Sturm and Drang literary movement affected by Hupel's social criticism, and how Herder gave birth to Volkslieder with the assistance of Hupel and others.
An influx of the black population was constantly observed in London throughout the 17^<th> and 18^<th> centuries after England's involvement in the Atlantic slave trade in Africa and large-scale plantations in the West Indies. How did they live and how were they received? In regard to the blacks' attitude and identity as well as the British reaction to them, the lives of three black Britons-Francis Barber, Igunatius Sancho, and Olaudah Equiano-were focused on and examined. Also the change of the social structure and British racial perceptions towards blacks, as caused by the black society of a foreign community in London, were discussed. This research attempts not only to criticize whites-led history but also to reconstruct the cultural history of England through blacks' eyes.
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