Pocahontas op Sumatra en andere indianenverhalen. Ontmoetingen met inheemse volkeren in de negentiende-eeuwse Vlaamse letterkunde

This article analyses how faraway regions and native peoples were represented in the Flemish literature of the precolonial Belgian period (1830-1885), focusing primarily on the representation of the ‘Indians’ (Native Americans) from North- and Meso-America, but also analysing two texts in which ‘savages’ from Pacific islands figure. The aim is to research which racial conceptions permeated these texts, and if or how these conceptualizations prepared the Flemish reader for the future colonial enterprises. This article is an extension of earlier published research on the topic (‘Het slechte geweten van Vlaanderen. Over het racisme van Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883)’ (WT 2021/2 en 2021/3). In this contribution however, it is not the engagement with migrants in Flanders/Belgium that takes center stage, but the encounters between Flemish and ‘Indians’ in faraway regions like the Wild West and tropical jungles, relying on the works of not only Hendrik Conscience, but also other Flemish authors such as Judocus Frans De Hoon, August Snieders, and Guido Gezelle. The “primal” nature of the “Indian” (who figured as an “exotic” idealtype in nineteenth-century Flemish literature) is primarily presented in a positive light as pertaining an unadulterated nature and childlike tenderness. Consequently, the literature only rarely entails bloodthirsty barbarians, but generally includes a number of variations of the so-called “noble savage”, with texts from the 1840s and 1850s in particular presenting a disheartening picture of Western Powers’ colonial and imperial conquests and their consequences for native peoples – with the one exception for the European “blackskirts” (missionaries), whose missionary work abroad was exempt from criticism and presented as wholesome. Moreover, the reader is constantly requested to feel remorse about the “endangered Indian”, a literary trope that is simultaneously being used to form an analogy with the Flemish who are also represented as being “endangered” and “oppressed” (by an “anti-Flemish” Belgium). Starting from 1885, it does seem that the people that does effectively encounter Belgian colonials – the inhabitants of ‘CongoFree State’ – elicit much less sympathy in Flemish literature than the “Indians”. The contrast is most striking in the works of Guido Gezelle, who maintained a lifelong fascination for the Native Americans, but did not endow a shred of civility or nobleness to the people in the heart of Africa.

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article

Toegankelijkheid:Closed