Capturing Hawai`i's rare beauty: scientific desire and precolonial ambivalence in E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Haimatochare".

E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1819 epistolary short story "Haimatochare" depicts the desires of two natural scientists on a mission to Hawai`i that leads to their tragic downfall. In this tale, the colonial encounter becomes the site onto which preexisting, contagious, and eventually fatal passions are transferred. The story thus produces an intense ambivalence, a complex and fascinating mix of fear and desire, toward European colonialism. My reading both begins to untangle the mesh of lust, horror, parody, and epistemological pursuits in this vexing text and suggests that more study of the ambivalence of German precolonial narratives can enrich our understanding of German discourses of nation, empire, race, and sex. (VW)

**********

A parody written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1819 about two scientists on an expedition to Hawai`i, "Haimatochare" is "precolonial" in relationship to the status of the particular space and native people described as well as to the German context of the text's publication. (1) The text explicitly treats, and emerges in, a broader colonial context where European nations already have colonized and are continuing to colonize the far reaches of the globe. Yet "Haimatochare" does not directly describe either the process of colonization or the author's experience of contact with potentially colonized spaces or cultures. So, while the story refers to British colonial authorities and takes place in the increasingly coveted Pacific, real-world conditions for author, audience, and setting are not exactly "colonial." For Hoffmann and his German contemporaries, the question of whether or not to colonize remained open, and Hoffmann's text responds to this question in a complex, ambivalent manner.

The profound ambivalence of this text could productively complicate the discussion of German precolonial discourse initiated by Russell Berman and Susanne Zantop in their respective analyses of "colonial discourse" (2) and "colonial fantasy." (3) Compared to most of the texts read by Berman and Zantop, this story's stance regarding colonialism is much less clear. It is not easily identifiable as "emancipatory reason" or "instrumental rationality" (Berman), nor is it a fantasy that expresses either "latent colonialism" or resistance (Zantop), but is rather a fascinating fusion of both. I would argue that more study of texts that are as complex, contradictory, and ambivalent as Hoffmann's will complement what we already know about German precolonial discourse and allow us better to heed Zantop's call to examine pre-twentieth-century German discourses of race and nation in ways that acknowledge and examine both racism and colonialism, yet that are not fundamentally tainted by assumptions about the inevitability of colonialism, German colonial brutality, and the Holocaust (16).

"Haimatochare" was recently called a tale "almost wholly neglected" by the academy (McGlathery 166). This story has probably received so little scholarly attention because, although both charming and intriguing, it seems to raise many more questions than it answers. Christa-Maria Beardsley argues that the story parodies science by linking it with grotesquely excessive emotion (300-06). There is no doubt that "Haimatochare" parodies scientific explorations and that it does so via strangely sexualized discourse. Yet Beardsley's brief reading does not fully account for this truly vexing tale. She does not explain the possible functions of Hoffmann's mockery of science. Nor does her claim that emotion makes the parody grotesque fully account for Hoffmann's deployment of sexual discourse. Moreover, Beardsley does not consider any functions of the text's Pacific setting beyond its location of the parody in a real rather than in a fantastic world (300).

Postcolonial scholarship, however, suggests that a sexualized critique of science in a precolonial context warrants analysis more attentive to that context. Anneliese Moore illuminates Hoffmann's copious references to persons, places, and events in European colonial and Hawai`ian post-contact history in her account of "Haimatochare" as the first piece of Hawai`ian fiction (13-27). (4) Moore's research makes clear that the tale's precolonial setting is intrinsic to its narrative, although she does not develop a literary or cultural analysis of the text beyond her thorough presentation of its relationship to historic figures, places, events, and texts. Nevertheless, the many connections unearthed by Moore also imply that it must be particularly significant that this sexually and emotionally charged persiflage of science takes place in a precolonial space. In the following analysis, I will address this nexus as well as show that the baffling complexity and deep-rooted ambivalences of "Haimatochare" are inextricable from its precolonial status. This will not only provide a more comprehensive reading of a fascinating, yet little-known text, but it will also allow me to suggest that more consideration of complexity and ambivalence in German precolonial texts could enrich our ongoing discussions of German colonial discourse.

"Haimatochare" shares its name with the lovely Hawai`ian islander who is a catalyst for the story's drama. Conceived in collaboration with Hoffmann's friend, the poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso, (6) the name "Haimatochare" means "delighting in blood" in ancient Greek, although it is meant to be easily mistaken for that of a maiden from the South Seas (E.T.A. Hoffmanns Briefwechsel 2: 202). (7) The seduction, deception, and destruction embodied in this figure's name epitomize her functions and those of the narrative itself. A series of letters charts the rapid escalation of hostilities between the naturalists Brougthon and Menzies, two dear friends on an expedition to O`ahu. It soon becomes clear that the tension is caused by Menzies' having stolen "the prettiest, handsomest, loveliest island beauty [Insulanerin]" from Brougthon (Moore 6; Hoffmann 672), which leads to the men killing one another in a duel. Only from a later letter by their captain does the reader learn that Haimatochare is not a woman but a new species of insect, something between a human pubic "crab" louse (Filzlaus) eaten [!] by "Hottentots" and Greenlanders and a horned parasite that feeds on birds (Latin: Hoffmann 678; English: Moore, "Haimatochare" 10; German: Beardsley 304-05, Briefwechsel 201). (8) Blamed for the death of two eminent scholars, this lovely louse is afforded a formal naval burial at sea by captain, crew, and a Hawai`ian retinue.