EPISODE 26: Multatuli, ”Max Havelaar” (1860), Part Two

2024-05-20

Chapters 5-9: 0:00—Principled Havelaar. 7:25—Havelaar & the chiefs. 12:30—How to read. 13:45—Drystubblian digression. 17:37—Moral instruction. 18:55—Interlude. Chapter 10: 19:21—Parson Waffler’s sermon. 20:15—The Curse of Ham. 26:27—The Dutch slave trade. 29:11—The Curse continues. 31:30—The sermon continues. 32:21—False prophets, 34:12—The sermon continues. 35:12—Anti-secular-humanism. 35:56—The sermon continues. 36:42—Fire & brimstone. 38:11—The sermon continues. 38:57—Black skin. 41:50—The sermon continues. 42:35—Sav...

Chapters 5-9: 0:00—Principled Havelaar. 7:25—Havelaar & the chiefs. 12:30—How to read. 13:45—Drystubblian digression. 17:37—Moral instruction. 18:55—Interlude.

Chapter 10: 19:21—Parson Waffler’s sermon. 20:15—The Curse of Ham. 26:27—The Dutch slave trade. 29:11—The Curse continues. 31:30—The sermon continues. 32:21—False prophets, 34:12—The sermon continues. 35:12—Anti-secular-humanism. 35:56—The sermon continues. 36:42—Fire & brimstone. 38:11—The sermon continues. 38:57—Black skin. 41:50—The sermon continues. 42:35—Saving the Javanese. 44:18—Voltaire. 46:56—Harriet Beecher Stowe. 48:19—Frederick Douglass 50:09—Race, religion & imperialism. 51:12—Drystubble on poetics. 55:11—Interlude.

Chapters 11-15: 55:39—Beautiful women. 1:00:21—Si Upi Keteh. 1:0437—Havelaar’s troubles. 1:07:46—Dekker’s career. 1:10:42—Max & Tine. 1:12:22—Grounds. 1:13:47—A corrupt system. 1:20:06—The limits of satire. 1:21:38—Closing.

Text: Multatuli, Max Havelaar. Translated by Ina Rilke and David McKay, New York Review Books, 1999).

Interludes: Javanese gamelan music, performed by the Yogyakarta Gamelan Ensemble, National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C., November 1, 2013.

Illustration: Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker), c. 1862, Radio Netherlands Archives.

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Contact: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Thanks to Professor David Gilmartin and the students of History 519: Modern European Imperialism, NCSU Spring 2024.

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