Page 64 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 64
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
al, he claims, but they are not natural, inborn, and substantial traits of a
nation (Linhart 1791, 220).3 They are just a way the people react to their
‘destiny’. He does not explicitly explain this ‘destiny’, but it is clear from
the context: they are dominated, oppressed by foreigners, who own their
land. Linharts text draws attention to an epistemological problem. We
perceive the world differently, when we are part of it or when we look at it
from an exterior position. It is not only a question of perspective, of see-
ing an ever-identical object from different angels. The object itself chang-
es. The behavior of the Slovenians changes, when observed by foreign-
ers. The character of the change depends on the social and political status
of the observer. The Germans perceive the behavior of the Slovenians as
hateful and leery because they themselves make them act so by determin-
ing their destiny. The question of the willingness and general possibility
64 of knowing the other does not arise at all, simply because the Slovenians
hide their ways with almost ‘religious diligence’. Being a playwright Lin-
hart pays special attention to this hiding and he realizes that it is a form
of resistance against colonialism, probably the only one left at that given
moment.
Some decades later Friedrich Baraga (Irenaeus Frederic Baraga)—a
Roman Catholic priest of Slovenian origin—published the book
Geschichte, Character, Sitten und Gebräuche der nordamerikanischen In-
dier (1837), after spending seven years as a missionary in the Diocese of
Cincinnati. Again, this book was written in German, but a Slovenian
translation was published in the same year. In this book, it is a Slovenian
who plays the part of a foreign, external observer, who describes the char-
acter of Native Americans and claims that they have more bad than good
habits (cf. Baraga 2017, 35). Among the bad features, he stresses guile and
vengefulness (35), i.e. the same features that the seigneurial foreigners as-
cribe to the Slovenians, as Linhart noticed. In this chapter as well as in the
preface Baraga explains that his writing is based partly on his own expe-
riences, partly on oral reports, and partly on ‘reliable’ English sources (cf.
Baraga 2017, 7, 35). He gives no further information about these sourc-
es, but his explanation is nonetheless important because it suggests that
he adapted the point of view of the English settlers. The accounts of his
experiences are scarce and rarely different from the borrowed opinions.
Though Baraga came from a country, ruled by a foreign imperial pow-
er, in relation to Native Americans he was a representative of the power-
ful Roman Catholic Church and the colonial European culture. Still, he
had experienced, like Linhart before, that he must use foreign languages
3 “Falschheit, List, Zanksucht, sind Gebrechen ihrer Schiksale (sic!), nicht der Nation.“
al, he claims, but they are not natural, inborn, and substantial traits of a
nation (Linhart 1791, 220).3 They are just a way the people react to their
‘destiny’. He does not explicitly explain this ‘destiny’, but it is clear from
the context: they are dominated, oppressed by foreigners, who own their
land. Linharts text draws attention to an epistemological problem. We
perceive the world differently, when we are part of it or when we look at it
from an exterior position. It is not only a question of perspective, of see-
ing an ever-identical object from different angels. The object itself chang-
es. The behavior of the Slovenians changes, when observed by foreign-
ers. The character of the change depends on the social and political status
of the observer. The Germans perceive the behavior of the Slovenians as
hateful and leery because they themselves make them act so by determin-
ing their destiny. The question of the willingness and general possibility
64 of knowing the other does not arise at all, simply because the Slovenians
hide their ways with almost ‘religious diligence’. Being a playwright Lin-
hart pays special attention to this hiding and he realizes that it is a form
of resistance against colonialism, probably the only one left at that given
moment.
Some decades later Friedrich Baraga (Irenaeus Frederic Baraga)—a
Roman Catholic priest of Slovenian origin—published the book
Geschichte, Character, Sitten und Gebräuche der nordamerikanischen In-
dier (1837), after spending seven years as a missionary in the Diocese of
Cincinnati. Again, this book was written in German, but a Slovenian
translation was published in the same year. In this book, it is a Slovenian
who plays the part of a foreign, external observer, who describes the char-
acter of Native Americans and claims that they have more bad than good
habits (cf. Baraga 2017, 35). Among the bad features, he stresses guile and
vengefulness (35), i.e. the same features that the seigneurial foreigners as-
cribe to the Slovenians, as Linhart noticed. In this chapter as well as in the
preface Baraga explains that his writing is based partly on his own expe-
riences, partly on oral reports, and partly on ‘reliable’ English sources (cf.
Baraga 2017, 7, 35). He gives no further information about these sourc-
es, but his explanation is nonetheless important because it suggests that
he adapted the point of view of the English settlers. The accounts of his
experiences are scarce and rarely different from the borrowed opinions.
Though Baraga came from a country, ruled by a foreign imperial pow-
er, in relation to Native Americans he was a representative of the power-
ful Roman Catholic Church and the colonial European culture. Still, he
had experienced, like Linhart before, that he must use foreign languages
3 “Falschheit, List, Zanksucht, sind Gebrechen ihrer Schiksale (sic!), nicht der Nation.“
