German colonial novels, that is, novels published during European Imperialism and set in colonial spaces, traditionally are conceived as adventure novels. With some exceptions, such as Frieda von Bülow or Adda von Liliencron, these novels center around male protagonists who, through trials and tribulations, including wild animals, conflicts with Indigenous populations, idealistic but unhelpful missionaries, and impediments imposed by the German bureaucracy, succeed in proving their masculinity and return triumphantly to the imperial motherland. Contemporary literary engagements with the colonial past are also predominantly written by male writers, such as Uwe Timm, Ilija Trojanow, Giselher W. Hoffmann, Urs Widmer, and Christian Kracht, to name just a few. Their works won awards and have been debated in feuilletons and academic circles, and their literary merit is undeniable.
That doesn't seem very relevant to romance but I did manage to see snippets inside the chapter which do look relevant, about novels by Patricia Mennen and Leah Bach:
Both Mennen's and Bach's novels begin in imperial Germany (1871-1914), showcasing protagonists who fail to conform to the demands of a restrictive and repressive Wilhelmine society. Disillusioned, the misfits flee to the colonies, where they hope to start anew. Upon their arrival on the African continent, both Mennen's and Bach's protagonists experience adventure and calamity; in the end, union with a love interest completes the story arc.
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While Mennen's and Bach's novels seemingly champion female emancipation and independence, they are careful to hedge their bets: each protagonist eventually marries her love interest, implicitly affirming the patriarchal structures that confine them. At the same time, as modern women, they also realize their dreams; Jella and her husband run Owitambe. Although she has no formal training beyond her nursing education, Jella assumes the role of the "white doctor"; she treats patients and works together with local healers. While Charlotte finds professional success on her plantation, she ultimately complies with the wishes of her third husband George and settles in Dar-es-Salaam. After being reunited with her father, Paula gives in to her admirer's wooing and accepts his marriage proposal. The African colonies are presented as spaces in which gender roles are less rigid than in Imperial Germany; they offer room for experimentation, albeit, within a white supremacist, patriarchal framework as female emancipation and traditional marriage go hand in hand.
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In both Mennen's and Bach's texts, the attempt at a postcolonial gaze is evident in strong and explicit condemnations of racism or the repeated insistence on the humanity of the Indigenous populations. [...] In spite of these rhetorical gestures, however, the novels continue to present white supremacy and racism as character flaws rather than integral elements of a brutal system of subjugation; similarly, they perceive the extractive cultivation of land and exploitation of its people as a playground for the protagonists' emancipatory self-realization, rather than naked capitalism. As a result, the novels' puported postcolonial gaze remains nothing but a chimera, the authors' good intentions drowned out by discursive acts of relativization, such as favorable comparisons with other colonial powers and historical inaccuracies. Instead of adopting the intended postcolonial gaze, the authors (re)produce a neocolonial gaze.
Here's the abstract:
That doesn't seem very relevant to romance but I did manage to see snippets inside the chapter which do look relevant, about novels by Patricia Mennen and Leah Bach:
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