| Project/Area Number |
21K00444
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 02040:European literature-related
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| Research Institution | Nihon University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
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| Keywords | Pacific islands / exoticism / colonialism / Exoticism / Pacificism / German literature / German history |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
In the 18th and 19th century, European seafarers imagined Pacific Islands as an erotic paradise. The "girl of the island" became an allegory of the Pacific. However, together with this exoticist imagination, venereal diseases arrived on the islands and lead to a demographic catastrophe. The research of this project will investigate the connection between exoticism and the spread of disease on Pacific islands. It will critically discuss the consequences of exoticism for the local population and for the development of a politics of racial hygiene at the beginning of the 20th century.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The exotic islands of the South Pacific were considered spaces of sexual hospitality. Authors of the aesthetic avant-garde of German exoticism like Robert Mueller assess sexual hybridization positively while reflecting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases critically.
The discourse analysis of this project has shown that colonial literature of the bestselling author Edgar Freiherr von Spiegel, a naval officer and later Nazi diplomat, is influenced by German tropical medicine. Especially on the Marshall Islands, reports by German doctors fueled fears of syphilis infection.
It turns out that Nazi racial anthropology, with its rejection of hybridity, entered into a close alliance with German tropical medicine. This led to a negative assessment of sexual exoticism in colonial literature.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In 2023, I presented research results at numerous conferences and universities. Professor Rolf Parr (University of Duisburg-Essen), my co-editor of an anthology on exoticism, came to Tokyo for a book presentation during a conference at Meiji University. While I could publish a comprehensive study about Robert Mueller in this book, I still have not been able to find a publisher for a reissue of his Pacific novella "The Island Girl" (1919). However, I completed most of my archival studies on German colonialism in the Marshall Islands (Berlin State Library). On this basis, I continued my research at the National Archives of the Marshall Islands in March 2024 (DeBrum Photographic Collection). As a Research Fellow, I gave a presentation at the College of the Marshall Islands on March 21.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The results of my research project will be included in two articles for an encyclopedia on travel literature by the German publishing house Metzler (Stuttgart), which is scheduled to appear in 2024. In order to compare citations for these articles, another visit to the Berlin State Library is necessary. For a planned publication on Edgar von Spiegel's colonial literature, which is to appear in an anthology published by the German Studies Association of Australia, archival studies in Germany are necessary again in order to incorporate additions requested by the editors.
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