Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe

<p><i>Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe</i> investigates the visual imagery of race construction in Scandinavia Austro-Hungary Germany and Russia. It covers a period when historic disciplines of ethnography and anthropology were expanding and theorists of race were debating competing conceptions of biological geographic linguistic and cultural determinants. Beginning in 1850 and extending into the early 21st century this book explores how paintings photographs prints and other artistic media engaged with these discourses and shaped visual representations of subordinate ethnic populations and material cultures in countries associated with theorizations of white identity. <p/>The chapters contribute to postcolonial research by documenting the colonial-style treatment of minority groups by exploring the anomalies and complexities that emerge when binary systems are seen from the perspective of the fine and applied arts and by representing the voices of those who produced images or objects that adopted altered or critiqued ethnographic and anthropological information. In doing so <i>Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe</i> uncovers instances of unexpected connections establishes the fabricated nature of ethnic identity and challenges the certainties of racial categorization. It is essential reading for students and scholars of racial history and postcolonialism within visual culture and art history.</p>