2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Exoticism and the Spread of Disease on Pacific Islands
| Project/Area Number |
21K00444
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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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| Keywords | Pacific islands / exoticism / colonialism |
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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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| Causes of Carryover |
My stay as a research fellow of the College of the Marshall Islands was not as expensive as expected, as my supervisors were able to provide some local hospitality. During a field trip to Arno Atoll, I saved accommodation fees by using my tent instead of booking a hotel. The conference organizers at the University of Sydney will edit an anthology in which my article about Spiegel's sojourn in the Pacific is to be included. They are demanding changes and additions. I would like to proceed with the finishing touches during a sojourn at Berlin's State Library and Federal Archives in summer 2024.
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| Remarks |
Programs of the workshops and conferences on exoticism held at Nihon and Sophia University (2021/22). Concept: Thomas Schwarz (basis of the introduction to the anthology “Exotismen in der Kritik”).
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