This thesis focuses on Dutch foreign policy towards Japan during the tumultuous Bakumatsu Period (1853-1868) and situates said foreign policy within the broader context of Dutch neutrality and...Show moreThis thesis focuses on Dutch foreign policy towards Japan during the tumultuous Bakumatsu Period (1853-1868) and situates said foreign policy within the broader context of Dutch neutrality and imperialism of the nineteenth century. The study concludes that even though the Dutch government viewed the Netherlands as a small power in Europe, it was a large imperial power in Asia, and as such it had to pursue active foreign policy in East/Southeast Asia to protect Dutch interests in light of encroaching Western imperialism in the region. Contrary to previous studies, this thesis argues that Dutch neutrality did not imply passivity, but instead proved to be a unique form of Dutch foreign policy amidst larger imperial powers and Japan, in which the ingenuity, character and actions of Dutch actors in Japan was crucial.Show less
This thesis aims to shed light on legal practice of the nineteenth century in France and The Netherlands and contrast it with legal theory and current historiography. In both older and newer French...Show moreThis thesis aims to shed light on legal practice of the nineteenth century in France and The Netherlands and contrast it with legal theory and current historiography. In both older and newer French and Dutch historiography, the nineteenth century is described as the century of legalism, also referred to as exegetical thinking. This exegetical school of law considers the codified law to be the highest and practically the only source of law on which the judge and legal scholar must rely. This historiography is mainly based on the development of legal theory as practised at universities. Implicitly or sometimes even explicitly, legal practice is equated with this legal theory. This fallacy obscures the practice of law, which did not take place in the university or the chambers of scholars, but in the courtroom. To address this lacuna, the following question was answered: To what extent was legalism in the Netherlands and the exegetical school in France really the dominant approach in legal practice and how can possible differences between both countries be explained? In order to know the practice of law and to assess whether judges, like legal theorists, were under the spell of exegetical thinking, judgments of courts were analysed. These can be found in case law journals that emerged in the nineteenth century. This study looked specifically at the judges' references to case law; the work of colleagues. The reference to case law is contrary to the doctrine of the exegetical school which accepts codification as the sole source of law. Referral to sources of law outside the codification by the courts, either implicit or explicit, imply a freer attitude towards the codification than legal scholars of the nineteenth century and current historiography would have us believe. Analysis of approximately two thousand Dutch and French judgments throughout the nineteenth century showed a difference in the quantity and nature of the references between both countries. In France, judges themselves referred explicitly to specific case law or to case law in general, whereas in the Netherlands judges did not refer to case law themselves, but relied on the arguments of the litigants and the Advocate-General, who did explicitly invoke case law. My research gives cause to adjust the image of nineteenth century legal history. The nineteenth-century judge was a child of his time, but not a puppet of legal theory. Lex semper dabit remedium: The law always provides a remedy; this was the starting point, but case law often supplemented it. The demonstrated difference between legal theory and legal practice fits within a broader development in current historiography, emphasising continuity of politics, culture, and in this case legal practices, in the wake of the French Revolution.Show less
Like other nineteenth-century reform movements in Great Britain and the United States, the vegetarian movement sought to bring about lasting change. It intertwined with other movements as disparate...Show moreLike other nineteenth-century reform movements in Great Britain and the United States, the vegetarian movement sought to bring about lasting change. It intertwined with other movements as disparate as abolitionism on the one hand and eugenics on the other. However, the change it sought was not merely institutional or social. The type of reform vegetarians advocated was at its heart something that progressed on an intimate, individual level. Changing the food one ate meant changing one’s relationship to history, tradition, culture, religion—one’s daily routines, carried out with family, in the intimacy of domestic spaces. But it also involved changes to one’s habits as a consumer, whether that meant sourcing (or creating!) new foods, growing one’s own, or even foraging in the forest for edibles. And since the foods we eat are the building blocks of our embodied selves, vegetarianism represented a fundamental change to the very substance of the human body. Because it intruded deeply into the personal realm, involving the universal daily act of eating, the discourse on eating vegetables was larger than the vegetarian movement itself, touching not only other reform movements, but facets of culture connected to class, gastronomy, colonial ties, gender and religion, to name but a few. A strange feature of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century vegetarianism—given its name—was that in many ways it was more about not eating meat than it was about eating vegetables. It is perhaps for this reason that although vegetarians had plenty to say about the virtues of vegetables, studies of vegetarianism tend to lack nuance when they situate these arguments beside what others were saying about eating vegetables, focusing largely on reactionary statements and missing other strands of discourse around vegetable eating within the mainstream. Therefore, my research takes this wider view, examining British and American vegetarian, vegetable and other cookbooks to situate the vegetarian imperative towards plant-based eating in the context of contemporary attitudes towards vegetables themselves, whether connected to vegetarianism or not.Show less
This thesis exlores the interlinkage between cats and women in the domestic sphere. It goes into the more overall image and treatment of cats around 1900, but also more explicitly within the...Show moreThis thesis exlores the interlinkage between cats and women in the domestic sphere. It goes into the more overall image and treatment of cats around 1900, but also more explicitly within the domestic sphere and the ideal of domesticity. However, the final chapter demonstrates how cats could actually be utilized by women to escapte the narrow notion of domesticity. Animal agency and the animal experience are important factors as well.Show less
Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
The Jarves Collection, the first collection of early Italian art in the United States, was created by James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888) in Florence in the 1850s, and brought to the USA in 1860...Show moreThe Jarves Collection, the first collection of early Italian art in the United States, was created by James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888) in Florence in the 1850s, and brought to the USA in 1860 hoping to create a “Free Gallery of Art.” Jarves presents medieval and Renaissance Florence as a democratic and religious model for the United States to emulate. The collection thus performed an educational function, literally carrying civilization – in the form of early Italian paintings – to the United States. Considering Jarves’s role within the history of American collecting and reception of Italian art, publications have focused on placing Jarves within the American history of collecting, while giving little thought to underlying structures in Jarves’s motivations and actions in assembling and promoting his collection. As Jarves presents history as a didactic and emancipatory model for the United States, this thesis asks what his stake was in presenting early Italian art as the model of civilization. Limited to the period from the early 1850s, when Jarves starts collecting, until 1871, when the collection was sold to Yale University, this thesis focuses on Jarves’s motivations, placed within contemporary trends. It is split into three parts: the first looks at the underlying structures that influenced the make-up of the collection; the second looks at Jarves's ideas as expressed through his writings, and at their connection to his collection. The final part looks at the Jarves's main aim for his collection: the creation of a national gallery of art for the education of the American public.Show less
De Militaire Willemsorde, a Dutch play by Rosier Faassen, can be found in the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library. It exists in several different versions, in print as well as a...Show moreDe Militaire Willemsorde, a Dutch play by Rosier Faassen, can be found in the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library. It exists in several different versions, in print as well as a manuscript in beautiful nineteenth century script, dating from 1873 until presumably 1885. This historical drama about a family torn apart by a young soldier going to war had never since been edited. After all these years, a new edition was made so that yet again this humorous play with experiences recognizable to many generations can be performed and studied anew. Furthermore, a biographical element also appears in the edition whereby parts of Faassen’s auto-biography, which also has not been edited since the late nineteenth century, was used. To provide access to the text for a broader audience, the text was translated from Dutch to English. Much of the same considerations being used to edit the text were also used to prepare the translation. Hunter’s Editing Early Modern Texts as well as Mathijsen’s Naar de Letter was used in the editing process, as a framework and point of guidance. The edition takes the form of what Mathijsen calls a ‘study-edition’ , and contains a historical, critical edition of the text, as well as a justification of the choice of copy text, extensive commentary on the text, including historical and biographical information as well as a stylistic analysis of the text (based on Leech and Short). The translation is preceded by a theoretical framework on the process and strategies that were used in the translation of this drama from the nineteenth century. The overall procedure for the translation of the text was centered around the notions of domestication versus foreignization (Venuti) as well as notions of historicization and modernization, and performability (Bassnett and Lefevere). Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation procedures were discussed and used in the annotated translation, to describe the procedures used for the variety of translation problems that arose during the process. Lefevere’s work on translation as rewriting is especially relevant here, as he also remarks that “the same basic process of rewriting is at work in translation, historiography, anthologization, criticism, and editing” (9). In Lefevere’s words lies the suggestion that a natural relationship exists between translation studies and the world of the editor and philologist, which in reality seems to be a struggled one. Translation is often underrated by philologists, with their translated texts being used for instrumental purposes. A discussion about the mutual importance of translation and philology, and the recognition awarded in their respective fields was necessary here. The question: “How can the fields of philology and translation be reconciled in the edition and translation of De Militaire Willemsorde?” is answered in the final chapter.Show less
De Militaire Willemsorde, a Dutch play by Rosier Faassen, can be found in the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library. It exists in several different versions, in print as well as a...Show moreDe Militaire Willemsorde, a Dutch play by Rosier Faassen, can be found in the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library. It exists in several different versions, in print as well as a manuscript in beautiful nineteenth century script, dating from 1873 until presumably 1885. This historical drama about a family torn apart by a young soldier going to war had never since been edited. After all these years, a new edition was made so that yet again this humorous play with experiences recognizable to many generations can be performed and studied anew. Furthermore, a biographical element also appears in the edition whereby parts of Faassen’s auto-biography, which also has not been edited since the late nineteenth century, was used. To provide access to the text for a broader audience, the text was translated from Dutch to English. Much of the same considerations being used to edit the text were also used to prepare the translation. Hunter’s Editing Early Modern Texts as well as Mathijsen’s Naar de Letter was used in the editing process, as a framework and point of guidance. The edition takes the form of what Mathijsen calls a ‘study-edition’ , and contains a historical, critical edition of the text, as well as a justification of the choice of copy text, extensive commentary on the text, including historical and biographical information as well as a stylistic analysis of the text (based on Leech and Short). The translation is preceded by a theoretical framework on the process and strategies that were used in the translation of this drama from the nineteenth century. The overall procedure for the translation of the text is centered around the notions of domestication versus foreignization (Venuti) as well as notions of historicization and modernization, and performability (Bassnett and Lefevere). Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation procedures were discussed and used in the annotated translation, to describe the procedures used for the variety of translation problems that arose during the process. Lefevere’s work on translation as rewriting is especially relevant here, as he also remarks that “the same basic process of rewriting is at work in translation, historiography, anthologization, criticism, and editing” (9). In Lefevere’s words lies the suggestion that a natural relationship exists between translation studies and the world of the editor and philologist, which in reality seems to be a struggled one. Translation is often underrated by philologists, with their translated texts being used for instrumental purposes. A discussion about the mutual importance of translation and philology, and the recognition awarded in their respective fields was necessary here. The question: “How can the fields of philology and translation be reconciled in the edition and translation of De Militaire Willemsorde?” is answered in the final chapter.Show less
This edition contains 26 letters from the Doesburg Letter Collection (1777 -1822) focusing on its female correspondents. The letters give an exceptional insight into the personal lives of men and...Show moreThis edition contains 26 letters from the Doesburg Letter Collection (1777 -1822) focusing on its female correspondents. The letters give an exceptional insight into the personal lives of men and women from all layers of the population in a time in Dutch history that was marked by almost constant war and the subsequent political, social and economic changes that came with these conflicts. Many of the letters are signed by women, which make the letter collection a rare source, since not many writings have been preserved from women living in this period, especially not from the lower class. For this reason, this edition focuses entirely on the female correspondence of the collection. The letters for this edition were chosen based on their geographic variation in order to give a broad picture not only of the lives of women from Doesburg, but from all over the Netherlands in the regarding period. To place the letters into context, this edition includes: an overview of the history of the Netherlands and Doesburg in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, of reading and writing in the Low Countries, of the position of women in the Netherlands, and provides a sketch of the Dutch postal system between 1777-1822.Show less
This thesis focuses on the period at the end of the nineteenth century when knowledge of the colonized cultures and their histories became an integral part of European imperial policies. In the...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the period at the end of the nineteenth century when knowledge of the colonized cultures and their histories became an integral part of European imperial policies. In the search for tools legitimizing their overseas venture, architecture turned out to be one of the most visual and lasting tools for boosting such efforts. It is precisely by exploring this aspect of empire-building through architecture that my thesis attempts to redress the lacunae of historical research on colonial architecture as a measure for studying colonial history. Conventional historiography has largely neglected this aspect of empire-building, leaving much of it for architects, urbanists and art historians to deal with. Most of the scholarly contributions to colonial architecture have not yet been able to sufficiently expose the underlying imperial designs or the socio-cultural processes behind such building projects. In this thesis, I have made attempts to trace these processes and examine them from a comparative perspective using Foucault’s power/knowledge dimension. By pitching the three former Asian colonies of British-India, Dutch-Indies and French-Indochina next to each other and analysing the hybrid architecture found in their main public buildings, the ways in which the colonial government tried to impress the people through their building styles can be revealed. They resorted to the incorporation of often randomly mixed local architectural elements into buildings which looked European otherwise. This resulted in buildings depicting hybrid architectural styles. Such designs reflected a self-proclaimed European mastery in managing knowledge of the colonized cultures. In trying to claim their legitimacy as new rulers, colonial governments went to great lengths, using the visual qualities of architecture to shield a relatively weak system. The erection of confident and mighty stone facades, however, did little to bury the lingering orientalist prejudices and the inherent unequal status of the colonizers and the colonized. In fact, the knowledge on local histories generated by the colonizers helped create local identities that gave a boost to the upcoming nationalistic movements. But there were interesting differences among the colonies though, that this comparative exercise laid bare. The nuances manifested in the different colonies in terms of the willingness to spend financial resources, the often conflicting objectives between colonial institutions, the effects of shifting colonial policies and the paradoxical underlying principles that defined those policies, and other contextual factors, led to differences in imperial policies and their consequent architectural plans. By probing into these differences as well as by highlighting the similarities cutting across all the three colonies, my thesis contributes to understanding the varying shades of colonialism through the seemingly silent yet starkly telling structures.Show less
This paper explores how ‘foreignness’, in the form of recipes, was included and excluded from nineteenth century Dutch cookbooks. This was a time of low migration in the Netherlands. However, while...Show moreThis paper explores how ‘foreignness’, in the form of recipes, was included and excluded from nineteenth century Dutch cookbooks. This was a time of low migration in the Netherlands. However, while other factors, such as political developments, the rise of the middle class and the development of more cosmopolitan identities were all important, the influence of migrants over the inclusion of foreign content in the cookbooks should not be discounted. The openness of Dutch society to these culinary innovations was indicative of attitudes in other spheres.Show less
Pieter Albert Bik (1798-1855), a Dutch colonial official, left behind an unpublished manuscript detailing his travels during his career both in Asia, especially in Japan and the Dutch East Indies,...Show morePieter Albert Bik (1798-1855), a Dutch colonial official, left behind an unpublished manuscript detailing his travels during his career both in Asia, especially in Japan and the Dutch East Indies, and in Europe, notably along the Rhine. A close examination of the manuscript suggests that Bik's interpretation of his travel experiences in Europe and overseas were remarkably similar, and that both were influenced by the burgeoning phenomenon of European tourism that was taking root along the Rhine at the time. A close reading of this source, and a brief comparative analysis, show that tourism indeed influenced the discourse of colonial travel much earlier than has so far been acknowledged. An examination of this influence calls to question several conventional presumptions of colonial history, and draws attention to a thus far seldom recognised character: the early colonial leisurely tourist. This analysis, however, requires - apart from primary research - a synthesis of the academic literatures on colonial travel on the one hand, and European tourist culture on the other.Show less
This study analyses the function of the jesuit myth within the political debate of the netherlands in the nineteenth-century. The results show that the jesuit myth had a great impact in the...Show moreThis study analyses the function of the jesuit myth within the political debate of the netherlands in the nineteenth-century. The results show that the jesuit myth had a great impact in the relations between liberals, catholics and orthodox-protestants.Show less