Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe

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.

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 at the University of West Florida, USA. She is lead editor of Darwin and Theories of Aesthetics and Cultural History (2013) and The Art of Evolution (2009) and author of The Dark Side of Nature (2005). She is also Series Editor of Science and the Arts since 1750 and Nineteenth-Century Science and Visual Culture in Great Britain.

List of Plates
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Introduction, Marsha Morton (Pratt Institute, USA)
1. From Folk to a Folk Race: Carl Arbo and National Romantic Anthropology in Norway, Patricia G. Berman (Wellesley College, USA)
2. From "Northern Dweller" to "Distinguished Among His Race": The Transformation of the Nordic Colonial Subject, 1900-1935, Bart Pushaw (University of Maryland, USA)
3. Decolonizing the Archive: Pia Arke and Stories from Scoresbysund, Alison Chang (Independent Curator, USA)
4. Brigands and Virtuous Musicians: Representations of Roma ("Gypsies") as Oriental Other in the Eastern Part of the Habsburg Monarchy during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Robert Born (University of Leipzig, Germany) and Dirk Suckow (University of Leipzig, Germany)
5. Leopold Carl Müller's Scenes from Egyptian Life: Ethnography, Race, and Orientalism in Habsburg Vienna, Marsha Morton (Pratt Institute, USA)
6. A Hungarian Treasure Chest: The Art Colony at Gödöllo in Critical Perspective, Rebecca Houze (Northern Illinois University, USA)
7. The Journey West: Gauguin, Philology, And the Celts of Brittany, Barbara Larson (The University of West Florida, USA)
8. In the Beginning was the Image: Russian Ethnography and Colonial Photography in Turkestan, 1860s-1870s, Margaret Dikovitskaya (Independent Scholar, USA)
9. "Children of the Narod: Early Soviet Children's Books' Racialization of Childhood", Marie Gasper-Hulvat (Kent State University, USA)
10. From Sideshow to Portrait: The Ethnographic Vision of Christian Schad, Kristin Schroeder (University of Virginia, USA)
11. Anthropological Histories and Techniques in Philip Scheffner's Films, Priyanka Basu (University of Minnesota, USA)
Index