2004
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Volume 29, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1384-5829
  • E-ISSN: 2352-118X

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines (1769), a tragedy previously considered the first explicitly anticolonial play in the Dutch language. Purportedly examining Dutch aggression during the 1682 conquest of the Banten Sultanate from a Javanese perspective, , as this contribution argues, reproduces stereotypical emotional identities with its Dutch and Javanese protagonists which reflect early modern perceptions about errant passions () and the Orient. In particular, conveys contemporary beliefs that the Indonesian archipelago’s tropical climate heightened the emotional volatility of Java’s inhabitants, while the tropical heat impeded, to disastrous effect, the rationality of employees of the Dutch East India Company ( or VOC). Within this context, critiques the insatiable Dutch desire for wealth and the VOC’s willingness to oppress, exploit, and destroy the Indonesian archipelago’s land and peoples in their pursuit of it. This contribution demonstrates that should be seen as a warning to the VOC – and its shareholders – that financial mismanagement and the expansionist agenda will inevitably lead to the demise of the trade company. The ‘tropical emotions’ featured in endanger the Dutch self-image of the wise or honest merchant.

© Tim Vergeer
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2024-12-01
2025-01-02
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/content/journals/10.5117/NEDLET.2024.2.001.VERG
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Keyword(s): Dutch East India Company (VOC); Dutch Indies Literature; Eighteenth Century; Emotions; Orientalism; Theatre

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