Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe: Ethnography, Anthropology, and Visual Culture, 1850-1930

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Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe investigates the visual imagery of race construction in Scandinavia, Austro-Hungary, Germany, and Russia. It covers a period when historic disciplines of ethnography and anthropology were expanding and theorists of race were debating competing conceptions of biological, geographic, linguistic, and cultural determinants. Beginning in 1850 and extending into the early 21st century, this book explores how paintings, photographs, prints, and other artistic media engaged with these discourses and shaped visual representations of subordinate ethnic populations and material cultures in countries associated with theorizations of white identity. The chapters contribute to postcolonial research by documenting the colonial-style treatment of minority groups, by exploring the anomalies and complexities that emerge when binary systems are seen from the perspective of the fine and applied arts, and by representing the voices of those who produced images or objects that adopted, altered, or critiqued ethnographic and anthropological information. In doing so, Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe uncovers instances of unexpected connections, establishes the fabricated nature of ethnic identity, and challenges the certainties of racial categorization. It is essential reading for students and scholars of racial history and postcolonialism within visual culture and art history.

Reviews

[T]he narrow focus of each chapter essay builds both a satisfyingly comprehensive and very specific picture of the social and cultural histories of countries at the Continental margins. * Visual Culture *
[T]his edited volume offers a number of very rich case studies from different geographies within Europe. The chapters merge primary and secondary sources and open up possibilities for a critical interpretation of visual materials through the history of ethnography and anthropology. As such, the edited volume should be of interest to an interdisciplinary readership interested in the construction of the other through visual depictions. * German Studies Review *
The uniqueness of the book and its fascinating contents lies [...] in the skilful juxtaposition of textual and visual sources in [the editors'] analyses. * Mosse Program Blog *
Focusing our attention on the often contested and frequently porous "borders of Europe", this essential collection of essays complicates our understanding of how race, ethnicity, and national identity have been constructed and operationalized through art, design, and visual culture. * Allison Morehead, Associate Professor of Art History, Queens University, Canada *
A compelling and timely collection of essays based on immaculate research that will alter the readers critical understanding of the complex cultural-political engagement with subordinate ethnic groups in parts of Europe that have too long been marginalised by postcolonial discourse. * Sabine Wieber, Lecturer in History of Art, University of Glasgow, UK *

Author Bio

Marsha Morton is Professor of Art History at Pratt Institute, USA. A specialist in German and Austrian cultural history with a focus on interdisciplinary topics of art, anthropology, science, and music, her books include Max Klinger and Wilhelmine Culture (2014) and the co-edited anthology The Arts Entwined (2000). She is also a co-editor and contributing author to Visual Culture and Pandemic Disease Since 1750: Capturing Contagion (2023). Barbara Larson is Professor of Modern European Art History in the Art and Design Department of the University of West Florida, USA. She is author of The Dark Side of Nature: Science, Society and the Fantastic in the Work of Odilon Redon (2005) and lead editor of The Art of Evolution: Darwin, Darwinisms, and Visual Culture (2009) and Darwin and Theories of Aesthetics and Cultural History (2013).