In her captivating autobiographical novel Buiten het gareel [Out of Line], the Indonesian author Suwarsih Djojopuspito painted a vivid image of her experiences as an activist teacher during the last few years of Dutch rule in Indonesia. The book, published in Dutch in 1940, tells the story of Sulastri, an idealistic young teacher who runs a non-governmental school for Indonesian children together with her husband, Sugondo.
Continue reading Not your Average National Hero: Scattered Archives and the Women of the Indonesian Anticolonial MovementMonth: April 2021
Vicarious Observation: Conveying Pleasure and Sensory Experience in Eighteenth-Century British Periodicals
The time I spent perusing the British Library’s early modern treasures—thanks to a scholarship from the German Historical Institute London—left me with much to think about for my current research project on the body and pleasure in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century periodicals. First and foremost, my time in London gave me a heightened sense of how newspapers and magazines functioned as a medium for conveying pleasure, not least as a sensory experience.
Continue reading Vicarious Observation: Conveying Pleasure and Sensory Experience in Eighteenth-Century British Periodicals