Bonnie Effros
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501720079
- eISBN:
- 9781501720086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501720079.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This chapter explores how the French discovery of Roman ruins in Algeria was used to legitimate its annexation of the territory. Intellectuals and politicians argued that the Ottoman Empire was ...
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This chapter explores how the French discovery of Roman ruins in Algeria was used to legitimate its annexation of the territory. Intellectuals and politicians argued that the Ottoman Empire was illegitimate; France was the true heir of the shared Latinate civilization created by the Roman Empire. The new French Empire would simply reunite the Mediterranean world. These efforts were, however, thwarted by both human and material actors. Parisian museum administrators thought that the North African finds were of low quality and not of much interest. French colonists argued, by contrast, that the Roman artifacts should stay in Algeria, to help build a French imperial identity. And the things themselves resisted; they broke when soldiers tried to extract them and their weight sank the ships used to transport them. The chapter then suggests that nineteenth-century campaigns to steal, export, and re-signify art and antiquities sometimes fell short of their ambitions.Less
This chapter explores how the French discovery of Roman ruins in Algeria was used to legitimate its annexation of the territory. Intellectuals and politicians argued that the Ottoman Empire was illegitimate; France was the true heir of the shared Latinate civilization created by the Roman Empire. The new French Empire would simply reunite the Mediterranean world. These efforts were, however, thwarted by both human and material actors. Parisian museum administrators thought that the North African finds were of low quality and not of much interest. French colonists argued, by contrast, that the Roman artifacts should stay in Algeria, to help build a French imperial identity. And the things themselves resisted; they broke when soldiers tried to extract them and their weight sank the ships used to transport them. The chapter then suggests that nineteenth-century campaigns to steal, export, and re-signify art and antiquities sometimes fell short of their ambitions.
Miles Orvell
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190491604
- eISBN:
- 9780197523285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190491604.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, Cultural History
The first chapter explores how American intellectuals like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James imagined ruins in terms of European culture, holding them to be the mark of distinction. America’s lack ...
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The first chapter explores how American intellectuals like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James imagined ruins in terms of European culture, holding them to be the mark of distinction. America’s lack of such ruins was a sign of our cultural impoverishment. They, and photographers like William James Stillman, were deeply attracted to classical ruins. Meanwhile, American explorers were discovering ancient ruins in the United States—like the remains of the Mound Builders civilization—and the ancient remains of Mayan civilization in the Yucatan. The picturing of these ruins radically changed the sense of how old the American continent was. At the same time, these American ruins were perceived through the screen of Old World ruins, as early explorers saw them in relation to Egyptian pyramids. The romance of Mayan ruins has long remained a magnet even for avant-garde artists like Robert Smithson, who traveled to Yucatan to engage in the ancient New World.Less
The first chapter explores how American intellectuals like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James imagined ruins in terms of European culture, holding them to be the mark of distinction. America’s lack of such ruins was a sign of our cultural impoverishment. They, and photographers like William James Stillman, were deeply attracted to classical ruins. Meanwhile, American explorers were discovering ancient ruins in the United States—like the remains of the Mound Builders civilization—and the ancient remains of Mayan civilization in the Yucatan. The picturing of these ruins radically changed the sense of how old the American continent was. At the same time, these American ruins were perceived through the screen of Old World ruins, as early explorers saw them in relation to Egyptian pyramids. The romance of Mayan ruins has long remained a magnet even for avant-garde artists like Robert Smithson, who traveled to Yucatan to engage in the ancient New World.
