TY - JOUR
T1 - Adventurers and agents provocateurs
T2 - A German woman traveling through French West Africa in the shadow of war
AU - Boittin, Jennifer Anne
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - When Dr. Rosie Gräfenberg traveled to French West Africa in 1929, she set the French security and intelligence service on high alert. Rumors preceding her arrival suggested she might be a Russian agent, a communist agitator, and a German spy, among other things. She, however, presented herself as a German journalist. This article contrasts Gräfenberg's autobiography and newspaper articles with French police archives to consider why the stories surrounding her life diverged so greatly and what variations in detail, fact, and tone reveal about how Franco-German relations influenced considerations of race, nation, gender, and sexuality in the French Empire. In part because her trajectory was so outlandish, Gräfenberg's writings help us to consider the influence of World War I upon interwar colonial politics, procedures, and presumptions.
AB - When Dr. Rosie Gräfenberg traveled to French West Africa in 1929, she set the French security and intelligence service on high alert. Rumors preceding her arrival suggested she might be a Russian agent, a communist agitator, and a German spy, among other things. She, however, presented herself as a German journalist. This article contrasts Gräfenberg's autobiography and newspaper articles with French police archives to consider why the stories surrounding her life diverged so greatly and what variations in detail, fact, and tone reveal about how Franco-German relations influenced considerations of race, nation, gender, and sexuality in the French Empire. In part because her trajectory was so outlandish, Gräfenberg's writings help us to consider the influence of World War I upon interwar colonial politics, procedures, and presumptions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84896293272&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.3167/hrrh.2014.400107
DO - 10.3167/hrrh.2014.400107
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84896293272
SN - 0315-7997
VL - 40
SP - 111
EP - 131
JO - Historical Reflections
JF - Historical Reflections
IS - 1
ER -