The Birth of the Foreign : A Digital Conceptual History of Buitenland in Dutch newspapers 1815-1914

Abstract

This thesis studies the concept of “buitenland” (“the foreign”) in a broad sample of Dutch newspapers in the period 1815-1914. It seeks to broaden our understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of globalization. Research into globalization is mostly focused on the material developments. Cultural and conceptual dimensions that constitute today’s global ‘mindset’ are, however, largely neglected. This research aims to contribute to our understanding of the ‘semantic circumference’ of globalization by reconstructing the history of one of the spatial concepts that underlies historical and contemporary ‘mental geographies’: buitenland. It does so firstly by a frequency-based approached to words related to the concept. Specific contexts ‘hosted’ buitenland and through (clustered) word sequences (n-grams) it is shown how these contexts evolved over time. Also, concepts that ‘surrounded’ buitenland are considered. Particular attention is paid to parallel and counter concepts such as “the domestic”, “national”, “strange” and “international” that left their mark on the change in the meaning and role of buitenland. Lastly, the research investigates into the associations that attached themselves to the concept. Distance, scale, instability and temporality were important semantic properties that invested the concept of buitenland with meanings that are still present today. Ideas of “the foreign” as a singular, unstable and threatening space closely related to the current day conceptualization of globalization as a dangerous ‘global’ development.