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.
 

Birgit Tautz is Assistant Professor of German at Bowdoin College. She has written on eighteenth-century and twentieth-century German cultural studies and is the editor of Colors 1800/1900/2000: Signs of Ethnic Difference.

"This is a groundbreaking study in the field of eighteenth century and post-colonial studies. In style and content, Reading and Seeing reveals sophisticated and innovative scholarship, and is rich in scope. Tautz analyzes how key intellectuals and writers of German (1670-1830) were instrumental in mapping modern ethnic differences in a variety of genres and texts such as philosophy, drama, popular travelogues, and scholarly writing. Tautz shows how the writers were struggling to define their own subjectivities vis-a-vis their ethnic locals when looking for the appropriate rhetorical means or representing the ethnic Other while their own perceptions defied their representational means."--Peter Höyng, Associate Professor of German, Emory University