1810年至1815年，莎拉·巴特曼在欧洲舞台上扮演霍滕托·维纳斯，她是当时最著名的女性之一，也是最不知名的女性之一。作为霍滕托的维纳斯，她被西方人视为迷人而原始，反映了他们的恐惧和压抑的欲望。但莎拉·巴特曼是谁？成为霍滕托维纳斯的女人是谁？根据跨越三大洲的研究和采访，莎拉·巴特曼和霍滕托的金星讲述了一个虚幻的生命和一个著名的偶像交织在一起的历史。通过这样做，这本书提出了关于传记的可能性和局限性的问题，以了解生活在不同文化之间的人。
在重建巴特曼的生活时，这本书穿越了南非边境及其种族灭绝暴力、世界性的开普敦、奴隶贸易的终结、工业革命、法国大革命、拿破仑战争、伦敦和巴黎上流社会，以及种族科学的兴起。作者们讨论了发现巴尔特曼去伦敦时，她的年龄比最初设想的要大的后果，并探讨了霍滕托金星对女性、种族和性观念的持久影响。这本书以将巴特曼的遗体送回祖国所涉及的政治作为结尾，并将巴特曼的故事与她在19世纪和20世纪南非的后代联系起来。
莎拉·巴特曼和霍滕托·维纳斯为一位女性的生活提供了权威性的描述，并使她恢复到她历史的全部复杂性。
Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography
Displayed on European stages from 1810 to 1815 as the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of the most famous women of her day, and also one of the least known. As the Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerners as alluring and primitive, a reflection of their fears and suppressed desires. But who was Sara Baartman? Who was the woman who became the Hottentot Venus? Based on research and interviews that span three continents, Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus tells the entwined histories of an illusive life and a famous icon. In doing so, the book raises questions about the possibilities and limits of biography for understanding those who live between and among different cultures.
In reconstructing Baartman’s life, the book traverses the South African frontier and its genocidal violence, cosmopolitan Cape Town, the ending of the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, London and Parisian high society, and the rise of racial science. The authors discuss the ramifications of discovering that when Baartman went to London, she was older than originally assumed, and they explore the enduring impact of the Hottentot Venus on ideas about women, race, and sexuality. The book concludes with the politics involved in returning Baartman’s remains to her home country, and connects Baartman’s story to her descendants in nineteenth- and twentieth-century South Africa.
Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus offers the authoritative account of one woman’s life and reinstates her to the full complexity of her history.
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