Drawing a Blank; A Content Analysis of Dutch Colonial Literature
Summary
This thesis analyzes the ways in which skin colors are described in the three novels Hoe hij raad van Indië werd (1888), De stille kracht (1900) and Rubber (1931). These novels were written by Dutch authors and are concerned with the Dutch East Indies. By studying descriptions of skin colors and the connotations that are attached to them, racist stereotypes can be uncovered. Furthermore, by investigating the Dutch white racial position, blank, it becomes possible to understand whiteness as a social performance that interplays with ideas about gender and class and needs constant application to have a meaning in society. This thesis therefore questions whiteness as an invisible and neutral presence and proposes a perception of whiteness as a performance through the constant pursuit of an unreachable ideal of whiteness.