Retrospektive, letnik VIII, številka 2-5

Ceremonies of Civilization: A Study on the Aesthetics of Progress in the Age of Comparisons

Augusto Petter

DOI 10.64651/8-2-5 📋


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Povzetek članka

Članek preučuje, kako so se postrazsvetljenske filozofije zgodovine – obeležene s prevladujočimi linearnimi predstavami o napredku – estetsko utelešale v določenih dogodkih, institucijah in osebnostih poznega 19. stoletja. Na primeru potovanja Doma Pedra II., drugega in zadnjega brazilskega cesarja, v letih 1876–1877, članek pokaže, kako je bila monarhija na novo umeščena v globalne naracije napredka ter kako ta proces razkriva »estetiko napredka«.

Dom Pedrovo potovanje v tujino, osredotočeno na obiske muzejev, univerz, tovarn in svetovnih razstav, ga je postavilo tako v vlogo opazovalca kot v vlogo predmeta civilizacijskih primerjav tistega časa. Njegovo zavračanje vladarske pompoznosti v prid republikanski ali meščansko oblikovani podobi se je ujemalo z njegovim utelešenjem ideala učenega in kozmopolitskega vladarja. Ti estetski premiki so odražali širše spremembe v samopodobi monarhij, saj so vladarji po vsem svetu poskušali posnemati zahodne moderne družbe z novimi oblikami ritualov, ki niso več potekali v palačah ali drugih prostorih monarhij.

Skozi dogodke, kot so stoletna mednarodna razstava v Philadelphii, Caxtonova proslava v Londonu in otvoritev Wagnerjeve gledališke hiše v Bayreuthu, je Dom Pedro sodeloval pri »ceremonijalih civilizacije« – ritualih, ki so uprizarjali časovno logiko absolutnega napredka in opredeljevali suverenost skozi nove kulturne pojavne oblike. To pa ni pomenilo zatona monarhije, temveč njeno estetsko preoblikovanje v okvirih prevladujoče zakoreninjene svetovne podobe poznega 19. stoletja. Brazilski primer – primer države, ki jo je zaznamovala uporaba suženjskega dela – razkriva globoko ambivalentnost, ki je spremljala uprizarjanje, v katerem so ideali napredka sobivali z vztrajanjem družbenih neenakosti.


Viri in literatura

Dom Pedro’s Journals

  • Dom Pedro II. “Entry of 10 November 1871.” In: Diário do Imperador (1840–1891), ed. Begonha Bediaga. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, 1999.
  • Dom Pedro II. “Entry of 6 February 1888.” In: Diário do Imperador (1840–1891), ed. Begonha Bediaga. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, 1999.
  • Dom Pedro II. “Entry of 7 November 1871.” In: Diário do Imperador (1840–1891), ed. Begonha Bediaga. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, 1999.

Dom Pedro’s Correspondence

  • Dom Pedro II. “D. Pedro II to Gobineau.” 14 October 1873. In: George Raeders, Dom Pedro II e o conde de Gobineau. São Paulo: Ed. Nacional, 1938.
  • Dom Pedro II. “D. Pedro II to Gobineau.” 15 January 1874. In: George Raeders, Dom Pedro II e o conde de Gobineau. São Paulo: Ed. Nacional, 1938.
  • Gobineau, Joseph Arthur de. “Letter to Dom Pedro II.” 8 February 1882. In: Wilhelm Rauers, Dom Pedro II e o conde de Gobineau. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1938.

Newspapers

  • “Dom Pedro II.” The New York Herald, 15 May 1872.
  • “The Caxton Celebration.” The Times, 2 July 1877.
  • “The Caxton Quatercentenary.” The Graphic, 24 February 1877, 174.
  • “The Coming Emperor.” The New York Herald, 7 April 1876.
  • Harper’s Weekly, 27 May 1876.
  • O Commercio, 6 February 1872.
  • O Mosquito, 25 March 1876.
  • Orleans County Monitor, 27 May 1876.
  • The Daily Argus, 19 April 1876.
  • The Illustrated London News, 7 July 1877, 18.
  • The New York Herald, 10 May 1876, 3.

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Figures

  • “Scenes in His Life.” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Available at: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8f52cce0-c597-012f-44ea-58d385a7bc34 (access: November 2025).
  • “Our Centennial – President Grant and Dom Pedro Starting the Corliss Engine.” Harper’s Weekly, 27 May 1876. Library of Congress. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/89706312/ (access: September 2025).
  • “William Caxton, The First English Printer, Showing Printed Proofs to Edward IV.” Harper’s Weekly, 21 July 1877.
  • “Mr. Gladstone at the Caxton Memorial Exhibition, South Kensington.” Supplement to the Illustrated London News, 17 July 1877.
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Kontakti avtorjev

Robin Dolar, mag. zgodovine, doktorski študent, mladi raziskovalec
Oddelek za zgodovino, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani

Tibor Rutar, doc. dr. sociologije
Oddelek za sociologijo, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Mariboru

Augusto Petter, dr. zgodovine, ATER (začasni učitelj in raziskovalec)
Oddelek za zgodovino, Sciences Po Paris

Julija Šuligoj, dipl. francistka, mag. zgodovine, doktorska študentka
Oddelek za zgodovino, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani

Miroslav Vašík, mag. zgodovine, doktorski študent
Inštitut za zgodovino, Filozofska fakulteta, Karlova univerza

Sarah Lias Ceide, dr. zgodovine, raziskovalna sodelavka
Oddelek za zgodovino, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg


Abstract (Izvleček članka v angleščini)

This article shows how post-Enlightenment philosophies of history were aesthetically embodied in certain events, institutions, and individuals that disseminated the linear and imperialist temporality of progress. As a case study, the article examines the 1876–1877 journey abroad of Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, in the context of civilizational comparisons. The emperor’s practice of visiting institutions that materialized and displayed progress (museums, universities, factories, etc.) attracted the attention of the international press, which contributed to the fashioning and dissemination of that image. Moreover, his personal aversion to pompous ceremonies led to the adoption of novel political rituals that took place within progressive institutions and events, such as the International Exhibition in Philadelphia and the Caxton Celebration in London. Fashioned as “ceremonies of civilization,” these events – like the progressive emperor of a country socially and economically based on slave labor – reveal temporal ambivalences in the “age of comparisons.”

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