Die Verlobung in St. Domingo
hierarchy used by colonial societies to stratify and oppress the colonized. 3 It is Gustav’s burgeoning narrative control that emphasizes the significance of his racist and colonialist assertions. This is exemplified in the increased narrative intrusions relaying his thoughts and emotions, as, for example, when we learn ‘so übernahm ihn ein widerwärtiges und verdrießliches Gefühl’ (15) as Toni and Babekan ‘einander ansähen’ (15), suggests, thus paralleling his burgeoning dominance of Toni, 4 his ‘Mestize’ 5 (4) lover. In direct contrast, the most ardent opponents of these colonialist attitudes, Hoango and Babekan, aren’t afforded the same narrative control by Kleist; indeed, Hoango appears o nly briefly at the beginning and end, whilst Babekan summarizes her life story in less than a paragraph. Thus, we seem to have a very traditional colonial story, whereby the colonizers control the narrative and use it to vilify the uprising colonized, without the latter being able to combat this – hardly a significant critique of European colonialism. Although Kleist’s emphasis on Gustav and the narrator’s racist and colonialist views presents Die Verlobung as an ostensibly pro-colonialist text, an exploration of ideas communicated more implicitly reveals rather a different story; one, if not necessarily anti-colonial, certainly subversive of European colonialism. It seems wise to examine first where Kleist blurs the stark colonialist lines that the narrator and Gustav propagate. One might argue that simply Kleist’s inclusion of the atrocities of slavery suffered by Hoango (even the narrator admits the ‘Tyrannei’ (3) of his extraction from Africa) and Babekan (in her ‘sechzig Peitschenhiebe’ (13) following Toni’s traumatic conception and birth in Europe) represent the text’s greater sympathy toward the oppressed. 6 Although this may dispel notions of a paternalistic colonialism, it does not critique the persisting colonial attitude. 7 We do, however, see a subtle critique of the colonialist attitude, as expressed by the narrator and Gustav, in the undermining of their reliability – and thus the reliability of their assertions. We learn quickly of the prejudiced unreliability of the narrative voice, as exemplified particularly in its utterly skewed portrayal of Hoango’s revolutionary revenge as ‘unmenschlichen Rachsucht’ (4). This is utterly voided later as he agrees to let the white Strömlis (thus his enemies) go in order to save his children Nanky and Seppy, whom they hold hostage – a distinctly human reaction – rather than pursuing them in bloodthirst. 8 Furthermore, a particularly subversive element of Die Verlobung is the demonstration that Gustav’s 3 Susanne Zantop, ‘Changing Color: Kleist’s ‘ Die Verlobung in St. Domingo ’ and the Discourses of Miscegenation’, in A Companion to the Works of Heinrich von Kleist , ed. Bernd Fischer (Rochester NY: Camden House, 2003), pp. 191- 208. 4 From Michael Perraudin’s analysis, detailing Gustav’s subconscious desire for domination over Toni, one might argue that even an endorsement of their love endorses the wider colonial attitude. As seen in: Michael Perraudin, ‘Babekan’s ‘ Brille ’, and the Rejuvenation of Congo Hoango: A reinterpretation of Kleist’s story of the Haitian Revolution’, Oxford German Studies 20 (1991), pp. 85-103. 5 ‘Mestize’ is another term for a person of mixed racial ancestry, in this case referrin g to Toni who has three white grandparents and one black grandparent, and is thus referred to as having a ‘Gelbliche gehenden Gesichtsfarbe’ (4). 6 Zantop, p. 192-193. 7 Susanne Kord theorizes that this critique of French colonialism may in fact open the door for a kinder ‘paternalistic’ German colonialism – however, as this essay will discuss, this seems unlikely. As seen in: Susanne Kord, ‘The Pre - Colonial Imagination: Race and Revolution in the Literature of the Napoleonic Period’, in Un- Civilizing Processes? Excess and Transgression in German Society and Culture: Perspectives Debating with Norbert Elias , ed. Mary Fullbrook (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007), pp. 85-115. 8 Kord, p. 109-110.
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