The colonial canon: art books, anthologies, and the European avant-garde, 1890–1930

Thesis

Between 1890 and 1930, a canon of colonial artefacts and oral texts emerged from the collaborations of ethnographers and artists – an enterprise that profoundly reshaped their understanding of both the non-European Other and themselves, with consequences that continue to reverberate today. My thesis traces the formation of this colonial canon across three historical phases: first, the ethnographic documentation of these materials and their subsequent interpretation around 1900; second, their reframing by the European avant-garde; and third, their serialisation on the book market of the 1920s. By examining each of these phases, my thesis challenges the entrenched narrative of a European avant-garde ‘discovery’ of non-European art and literature. I argue instead that the avant-garde was part of a complex and often-overlooked network consisting of missionaries, museum curators, art dealers, publishers, and critics, through whose mediation they encountered the colonial material.

In a second step, I demonstrate that these collaborations were facilitated by art books and literary anthologies, key sites where crucial decisions about inclusion in – and exclusion from – the colonial canon were negotiated. The media-theoretical claim at the heart of this thesis is that art books and anthologies, while distinct in form, are comparable in their editorial practices and the canonising effects they exert through their selections. Both helped materialise a new, material concept of ‘world art’ and ‘world literature’, derived from the appropriation of colonial-origin artefacts and oral texts.

By focusing on material commonly neglected in existing research, my thesis proposes a shift in perspective: rather than adopting an author-oriented approach, it places editorial work at the centre, highlighting both standard practices and the individual liberties exercised by editors. This approach allows me to study ‘art’ and ‘literature’ in the making and analyse the effects of applying these categories to a wide array of objects. My project contributes primarily to German studies, comparative literature, art history, and the history of anthropology, offering a media-centred perspective on colonialism.

Authors: Schmid, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-vj2jvrz8q
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: French, English, and German
• Keywords: Richard Huelsenbeck; orature; Hugo Ball; looted literature; colonialism; oral literature; Dada; provenance research; Wilhelm Hausenstein; history of anthropology; world literature; looted art; African mythology; avant-garde; ethnography; Dualla Misipo; Carl Einstein; Hannah Höch; Tristan Tzara; Leo Frobenius; Felix von Luschan; world art; media studies
• Subjects: Dadaism; Literature and anthropology; Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Europe--History--20th century--Exhibitions; Anthologies--Editing; Literature; Ethnology; Photography; Colonies; Dadaist poetry; Illustration of books; Photobooks