[...]br />
motivation and demotivation of proper names and their implied referents

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Allegories of the Continent

Persianisch, Persiae,

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='lgc'>[Mary Louis ="ppl">Pratt='lgc'>]

“Our” Dr. Livingstone was a grand nephew of the “real” Dr. Livingstone in Africa. English Canada was still colonial in the 1950s='lgc'>: reality and ="trms">history were somewhere else, ="trms">embodied in British men.

The syllables wound through our lives, th="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading together by force of repetition things that were distant, discontinuous and unreal. Living stone. This is how empire makes the ="trms">world meaningful to its subjects, how it weaves itself into the everyday.

...empire made us part of a ="trms">history that was somewhere else made by people who were not us. At the same time, when it came to Africa, we knew who we were. Sunday school ="trms">missionary ="trms">stories built the color line into our ="trms">imaginations. That was part of their job, to create us as subjects of empire, give us our place in the order.

The ="trms">book aims to be both a study in genre and a critique of ideology. Its predominant theme is how ="trms">travel ="trms">books ="trms">written by Europeans about non-European parts of the ="trms">world created the imperial order for Europeans “at home” and gave them their place in it.  I ask how ="trms">travel ="trms">writing made imperial expansion meaningful and desirable to the citizenries of the imperial countries, even though the ="trms">material benefits of empire accrued mainly to the few. ="trms">Travel ="trms">books, I argue, gave European ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading publics a sense of ownership, entitlement and familiarity with respect to the distant parts of the ="trms">world that were being explored, invaded, invested in, and colonized. ="trms">Travel ="trms">books were very popular. They created a sense of curiosity, ex="trms">citement, adventure, and even moral fervor about European expansionism. They were, I argue, one of the key ="trms">instruments that made people “at home” in Europe feel part of a planetary project; a key ="trms">instrument, in other words, in creating the “domestic subject” of empire.

the rise of ="trms">natural ="trms">history

These case studies are shaped by a number of shared ="trms">questions. With what ="trms">codes has ="trms">travel and exploration ="trms">writing produced “the rest of the ="trms">world” for European ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">readerships at particular points in Europe’s expansionist process='qstn'>?

="large lg1" stl="font-size:123%"> ="trms">codifications of reality

the emanating glow of the civilizing ="trms">mission
the cash flow of development

(it habitually blinds itself to) the reverse dynamic

obsessive need to ="trms">present and re-="trms">present its peripheries

It becomes dependent on its others to know itself

important ="trms">historical ="trms">transitions alter the way people ="trms">write, because they alter people’s experiences and the way people ="trms">imagine, feel and think about the ="trms">world they live in.

='lgc'>[...='lgc'>]how European ="trms">travel ="trms">writing ="trms">interacted with enlightenment ="trms">natural ="trms">history to produce a Eurocentered form of global or “planetary” consciousness.

='lgc'>[="ppl">Pratt considers='lgc'>] the classificatory schemes of ="trms">natural ="trms">history in ="trms">relation to the vernacular peasant knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edges they sought to displace.

tourist propaganda
testimonio
oral ="trms">history


If one studies only what the Europeans saw and said, one reproduces the monopoly on knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge and ="trms">interpretation that the imperial enterprise sought.


the passport='lgc'>: contact zone, like the flirting gaze of an ="nms">Iranian woman with German ambassadors in ="ppl">Olearius images
Transculturation is a ="trms">phenomenon of the contact zone.
metropolitan modes of re="trms">presentation

creating (your own) autonomous decolonized cultures
dynamics of creole self-="trms">fashioning

="ppl">Pratt's “contact zone”='lgc'>: the space of imperial encounters, the space in which peoples geographically and ="trms">historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing ="trms">relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and ="trms">intractable conflict.

“contact ="trms">language”='lgc'>: an improvised ="trms">language that develops among speakers of ="trms">different tongues who need to ="trms">communicate with each other consistently, usually in the context of trade.

“colonial frontier” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> “contact zone” shifts the center of gravity and the point of view
...the space and time where subjects previously separated by geography and ="trms">history are co-="trms">present, the point at which their ="trms">trajectories now ="trms">intersect

a “contact” perspective emphasizes how subjects get constituted in and by their ="trms">relations to each other


='strcls'>* ="trms">travelers and ="trms">travelees ='strcls'>*
in terms of co-="trms">presence, ="trms">interaction, ="trms">interlocking understandings and practices, and often within radically a="trms">symmetrical ="trms">relations of power


='strcls'>***strategies of innocence='strcls'>*** (constructed in ="trms">relation to older imperial ="trms">rhetorics of conquest)
='lgc'>='lgc'>--> main protagonist of the anti-conquest is a figure (="ppl">Pratt sometimes calls) the “seeing-man”='lgc'>: (an admittedly unfriendly label for) the white male subject of European landscape discourse='lgc'>--he whose imperial eyes passively look out and possess


the idioms of ="trms">travel and exploration


two processes in Northern Europe (“planetary consciousness”)='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•the emergence of ="trms">natural ="trms">history as a structure of knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge
="lsts lst1">•the turn toward ="trms">interior exploration
='lgc'>+
="lsts lst1">•Bourgeois forms of subjectivity consolidated themselves
="lsts lst1">•new territorial phase of capitalism propelled by se="trms"nttrm="search">arches for raw ="trms">materials began
="lsts lst1">•coastal trade extended inland
="lsts lst1">•


ways of ="trms"nttrm="already,spread">reading and focusing ="trms">rhetorical analysis

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='lgc'>[="ppl">Brancaforte='lgc'>]

word ='lgc'>+ image
art ='lgc'>+ ="trms">science
visual ='lgc'>+ discursive

the reality that he ='lgc'>[="ppl">Olearius='lgc'>] has experienced

="ppl">Conley='lgc'>: “the mass of textual ="trms">material that accompanies single-sheet or atlas maps tends to reveal its ideological perspective in the gaps between a silent, spatial, schematic rendering of an area (in visual form) and a voluble ='lgc'>[por harf پر‌حرف='lgc'>], copious, emphatic, printed discourse that strives to tell of the invisible ="trms">history that the image cannot put into words”

="large lg3" stl="font-size:112%"> ="trms">questions of
="lsts lst1">•="trms">authorship
="lsts lst1">•political power
="lsts lst1">•intellectual influence


Meerwunder, exotic curiosities from the sea


="large lg4" stl="font-size:112%"> “we were about a gun-shot's distance”

in the age of incipient European colonia="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list expansion

a truly Baroque (bestseller) work, Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung der Muscowitischen and Persischen Reyse
(in terms of Oriental drama)
erudition (fazl فضل) ='lgc'>+ adventure ='lgc'>}='lgc'>-> in ="trms">narrative
="lsts lst1">•it is Adventure Time



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proto-ethnography
acquire eyewitness information about a relatively unknown part of the ="trms">world
="prgrph">-(with ="ppl">Olearius's style we can hear) ethnography's mantra='lgc'>: “="trms">writing from the ground” ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> attention to the shakenness of ="trms">difference (encountered or ="trms">imagined) ='lgc'>[="ppl">="ppl">Stewart bringing my attention to the ="trms">writing ="trms">affect:='lgc'>] “ground” sends people bouncing, takes place as a threshold, hits the senses as a set of provocations. “="trms">Writing ="trms">matters if objects of analysis are to be understood as emergent forms with qualities, intensities, and ="trms">trajectories that can be described or evoked. ="trms">Writing is not epi="trms">phenomenal to thought but its medium. As it sidles up to ="trms">worlds, disparate and incommensurate things throw themselves together.” (="ppl">="ppl">Stewart 2012)
(the ground of ="nms">Iran on which ="ppl">Olearius stands cannot be summarized in a ="trms">literalized description, under the spell of a kind of cartographic shorthand ='lgc'>[tond-nevisi تند نويسى، مختصر نويسى='lgc'>], into a strangely idea="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list paradigm that ="trms">imagines the things of the ="trms">world)
='strcls'>*="trms">writing can be='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•the practice of ="trms">writing ourselves into our ="trms">worlds as emergent and disparate ensembles ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> speculative concept of ‘="trms">worlding.’ ='lgc'>[to consider our='lgc'>] ="trms">writing as an inscription that configures the spaces of form and event in daily living
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">="ppl">Stewart slowed ethnographic practice='lgc'>: Why does ="trms">writing ="trms">matter in ethnography='qstn'>? How do forms of ="trms">writing change cultural theory='qstn'>? What ="trms">questions do forms of ="trms">writing raise about subjects and objects, forms of attention, the possibility of thinking through description='qstn'>? How do you describe a s="trms">cene, a character, an event, a ="trms">situation, a collective sensibility, a ="trms">difference, a ="trms">world='qstn'>? What does it mean to add ="trms">density and texture to ethnographic description='qstn'>? What can ethnography do='qstn'>?
="lsts lst1">•attuned to the ='strcls'>*forms and forces='strcls'>* un="trms">folding in s="trms">cenes and encounters ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*="trms">apparatus of conceptualization='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[pulled into (a tricky) alignment with[...]