Colonial Switzerland Rethinking Colonialism from the Margins

by Purtschert, Patricia; Fischer-Tiné, Harald

• ISBN13: 9781137442734
• ISBN10: 1137442735
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-05-28
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

A turn towards the 'colonial margins' can be observed lately within colonial and postcolonial studies. It has been argued that states without former colonies and their inhabitants shared colonial discourses and were intensely involved in colonial practices. This anthology looks at Switzerland, which constitutes a perfect case in point for a host of reasons: its strong economic involvement with imperial projects of other European countries, its transnationally entangled scientific community, its doctrine of neutrality, which, among other things, made the country attractive as operational base for anti-colonial activists, the significance of Swiss Christian missions as well of the secular development aid sector thereafter, and, last but not least, a palpable, though often denied racist discourse in contemporary public debates. This collection brings together the most exciting and challenging products of recent scholarship on colonial and postcolonial Switzerland and makes them available in English for the first time.

Author Biography

Patricia Purtschert is Postdoctoral Researcher at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, and a philosopher. Her areas of research are feminist, gender, queer, postcolonial and cultural studies. Together with Barbara Lüthi and Francesca Falk, she has co-edited the volume Postkoloniale Schweiz: Formen und Folgen eines Kolonialismus ohne Kolonien (2012, 2nd edition 2013).

Harald Fischer-Tiné is Professor of Global History at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. He has published widely on South Asian history and the history of colonialism and imperialism. His latest monograph is the biography of a diasporic Indian revolutionary: Shyamji Krishnavarma: Sanskrit, Sociology and Anti-Imperialism (2014).

Table of Contents

Contents
1. On the Tropical Origins of the Alps. Science and the Colonial Imagination of Switzerland, 1700—1900; Bernhard C. Schär
2. Race in the Making: Colonial Encounters, Body Measurements and the Global Dimensions of Swiss Racial Science, 1900-1950; Pascal Germann
3. The Other's Colony. Switzerland and the Discovery of Côte d'Ivoire; Lukas Meier
4. Patriotic Bonds and the Danger of Estrangement: Swiss Networks in Colonial Southeast Asia (1850–1930); Andreas Zangger
5. 'Wonderland' Peru: Migration and the Making of an Andean Switzerland; Angela Sanders
6. Bollywood, Chicken Curry – and IT: The Public Spectacle of the Indian Exotic, and Postcolonial Anxieties in Switzerland; Rohit Jain
7. Becoming Imperial: A Swiss Woman's Shifting Identity in British Southern Africa; Ruramisai Charumbira
8. From 'Native' Alpine Guides to Foreign 'Sahibs' in the Himalayas: Swiss Identity Formation at the Moment of Decolonization; Patricia Purtschert
9. Overburdened White Men (and Women). Ruptured Self-Images of Young Swiss in the 'Third World' (1950s to 1970s); Patricia Hongler and Marina Lienhard
10. The Other Side of Internationalism: Switzerland as Hub of Militant Anti-Colonialism (c. 1910-1920); Harald Fischer-Tiné
11. 'The Chinaman of old cannot be compared to the Chinaman of today': Official Views of China and the Construction of Colonial Knowledge in Interwar Switzerland; Ariane Knüsel
12. Glimpses into the Hearts of Whiteness: Institutions of Intimacy and the Desirable National; Anne Lavanchy
Colonial Complicities and Hidden Imperial Entanglements: An Afterword; Shalini Randeria