This book investigates the contested ways in which eighteenth-century German philosophers, scientists, poets, and dramatists perceived and represented China and Africa from 1680 to 1830. Tautz demonstrates in compelling ways that reading China allowed for the integration of cultural difference into Enlightenment universalism, whereas seeing Africa exposed irreducible differences that undermined any claims of universality. By working through the case of eighteenth-century Germany and Europe, the book adds an important cross-cultural and historical dimension to questions relevant to our world today.

Autorentext
BIRGIT TAUTZ is Assistant Professor of German at Bowdoin College, USA.

Inhalt
Hegel at the Limits Threads of a Texture: Leibniz's Translation of China Reading Sovereign Subjectivity via China Detailed Ethnicity. Perception and Gender in Travel Accounts Bodies on Stage: Late Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics of Race The Texture of History, the Color of Selves: The Turn to the Modern