Negotiating the foreign: the nineteenth-century Swiss experience of the Americas in two novels by Eveline Hasler

Burns, B. (2010) Negotiating the foreign: the nineteenth-century Swiss experience of the Americas in two novels by Eveline Hasler. In: Burns, B. and Charnley, J. (eds.) Crossing Frontiers: Cultural Exchange and Conflict. Papers in Honour of Malcolm Pender. Series: Internationale Forschungen Zur Allgemeinen & Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft. Rodopi. ISBN 9789042029972

Abstract

This study considers the encounter with the New World in two works by Eveline Hasler. Ibicaba. Das Paradies in den Köpfen (1985) depicts the exodus in 1855 of a large group of impoverished Swiss citizens to the coffee plantations of Brazil where they were exploited and forced into indentured servitude. Die Wachsflügelfrau. Geschichte der Emily Kempin-Spyri (1991) presents the story of Emily Kempin (1853-1901), the first German-speaking female law graduate, who, on being refused permission to practise law in her own country, sought her fortune in New York, but ultimately failed in her struggle against convention. The article appraises Hasler’s use of historical sources to probe perennial problems surrounding migration for both economic and professional reasons, and addresses the author’s contribution to the ongoing discourse on issues of cultural identity and belonging for Swiss protagonists with an ambivalent relationship to their homeland.

• Item Type: Book Sections (Other)
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Burns, Dr Barbara
• Authors: Burns, B.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > German
• Publisher: Rodopi
• ISBN: 9789042029972