Europe's Indians, Indians in Europe: European Perceptions and Appropriations of Native American Cultures from Pocahontas to the Present

by Dagmar Wernitznig

Overview

Europe's Indians, Indians in Europe is an accessible and multidisciplinary synopsis of European iconographies and cultural narratives related to Native Americans. In this pioneering work, European fascination with and phantasmagorias of 'Indianness' are comprehensively discussed, involving perspectives of history, literature, and cultural criticism. Topics range from so-called Pocahontas, paraded as an exotic souvenir princess in front of seventeenth-century Londoners, to Native Americans touring Europe as show token Indians with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in the late nineteenth-century.

European strategies of playing Indian include German dime novel artisan Karl May (1842–1912) and his literary fabrications of the 'vanishing race,' which were utilized by National Socialist propaganda, as well as the Englishman Archibald Stansfeld Belaney (1888-1938) reinventing himself as Grey Owl, or contemporary Europeans, 'cloning' surrogate Indian identities and 'patenting' synthetic tribes. Covering a vast transatlantic spectrum of aspects and anecdotes, Europe's Indians, Indians in Europe is a seminal study for anyone interested in learning more about European motives, mythopoetics, and microcosms of 'dressing in feathers.'

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761836896
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	06/21/2007
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Dr. Dagmar Wernitznig is an Associate Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, and a Lecturer at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Europe Writing the Indian Land of Enchantment: Charles Sealsfield a.k.a. Karl Postl and Karl May
Chapter 3 Indianness Touring Europe: Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Chapter 4 Dressing in Feathers Transatlantically: Grey Owl and Neo-Primitivism
Chapter 5 Playing Indian, Inc.: Para-Estoericism, Ethnic Patents, Culture Clones, and Cybertribes
Chapter 6 Postscript
Part 7 Index
Part 8 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Europe's Indians, Indians in Europe is marked by a valuable comparative approach that breaks from prevailing studies on particular European nations.

Canadian Journal of Native Studies

Europe's Indians, Indians in Europe is marked by a valuable comparative approach that breaks from prevailing studies on particular European nations.

Canadian Journal Of Native Studies

Europe's Indians, Indians in Europe is marked by a valuable comparative approach that breaks from prevailing studies on particular European nations.--Canadian Journal of Native Studies

From the Publisher