Open AccessOther People’s Cabins: German Inversions of Onkel Tom’s Hutte
Author(s) -
Kristin Moriah
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
lateral
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2469-4053
DOI - 10.25158/l4.1.6
Subject(s) - german , performative utterance , politics , art history , german reunification , work (physics) , history , art , sociology , aesthetics , political science , law , engineering , archaeology , mechanical engineering
Kristin Moriah’s essay is rooted in extensive archival work in the US and Germany, examining the transatlantic circulation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin through markets of performance and literature in and between Germany and the United States. The essay follows the performative tropes of Uncle Tom’s Cabin from its originary political resonances to the present-day restaurants, train-stops, and housing projects named for the novel. Moriah reveals how the figurations of blackness arising from these texts are foundational to the construction of Germanness and American-German relations in the early 20th century and beyond.