Exotic Switzerland?

Lange Beschreibung

Why is an object, an artwork, or a person deemed 'exotic'? How does one's gaze get directed onto things or people seemingly belonging to other regions or cultures? These questions are examined here in relation to a specific context: the Enlightenment era from the Swiss perspective. This publication brings together research by academics and museum specialists for the first time in order to rethink this time period and geography. It contains essays and shorter texts centered on pictures, objects, books, and natural specimens from Swiss museum collections. 'Exotic' in this context refers to things that come from elsewhere and that can be used and 'improved' for the benefit of European powers. The term invites us to reconsider both the long eighteenth century and the international history of Switzerland.

Inhaltsverzeichnis
11 - 29 Introduction (Noémie Étienne)31 - 42 Becoming Self through the Other: Another History of the Enlightenment (Patricia Purtschert)47 - 62 Swiss Porcelain and Slavery in the Global Eighteenth Century (Meredith Martin)63 - 77 Slavery, Exoticism, and Swiss Exceptionalism around 1800 (Bernhard C. Schär)79 - 96 Tea, Textures, and Techniques: Jean-Étienne Liotard and the Arts of Asia (Noémie Étienne)97 - 108 Asian Objects in Switzerland: Between Collector's Items and Consumer Goods (Claire Brizon)112 - 139 Object Inserts 1145 - 159 A Genevan in Quest of the American Museum: Pierre-Eugène Du Simitière (Dominique Poulot)161 - 176 Is Antiquity Exotic? (Julia Genechesi, Lionel Pernet)177 - 193 Printing the Exotic: Forms and Figures of the 'Faraway' before the Birth of Anthropology (Sara Petrella)195 - 206 Learning from Objects: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Zurich's Wasserkirche and its Functions (Claudia Rütsche)210 - 237 Object Inserts 2243 - 256 Swiss Chintzes: Cotton Threads and Political Patterns (Chonja Lee)257 - 269 Site of Memory and Projection Surface: Place in Scenic Wallpapers (Étienne Wismer)271 - 283 The Swiss as European Savages? (Ariane Devanthéry)285 - 297 The Discovery of the Alps: Between 'Science' and Exoticism (Simona Boscani Leoni)302 - 319 Object Inserts 3325 - 330 Afterword: The Ruses of Exoticism (Alban Bensa)335 - 336 The Fragile Structures of In-Betweenness: Susan Hefuna (Nadia Radwan)337 - 338 Authors339 - 346 Table of Figures347 - 359 Bibliography361 - 364 Index