The meaning of the word Westphalia in 18th century satiric prose

by debouwvakker

Hey there, These last days I'm reading over and again he word Westphalia in 18th century satiric prose. The thing is, it's always in italics and seems to refer to information beyond the geographical location. Can anyone tell me more? I have the following examples:

Alexandre Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, II.171-80
Let courtly wits to wits afford supply,
As hog to hog in huts of Westphaly;
If one, thro's Nature's bounty or his lord's,
has what the frugal, dirty soil affords,
(...) etc.

The following is from a dutch satiric periodical called Rotterdamsche Hermes (1720-21) and the piece of interest loosely translates as: Does he daily must use more harsh language, thus well-spoken with such fluent expression, as if he hath translated all from a Westphalian manuscript, to be heared by Scholtus, Pharhér and Kofter?

Hermes verwondert zich dat (…) de scherpzinnige Argus (…) zijn zwadder heeft uitgespogen op een verdienstig Acteur van den Amsterdamschen Schouwburg. Moet hy dagelyks erger en bitterder taal voeren, en dat zoo welluidend en met zulke vloeiende expressien, als of hy het alles uit een Westfaals Manuscript, ten overstaan van de Herren Scholtus, Pharhér und Kofter, had getranslateert? (…) ’t is waaragtig iets raars, als een Lunatique voor Achitophel t’scheep komt (…) en in alles Lucifer nabootst;

Thank to anyone with even the remotest directions to some information.

Speculum

I found a short explanation in:

  • Sebastian Scharte: Westfalenbilder und Westfalenbewußtsein: die Herausforderungen "Regionale Kulturpolitik" und "Verwaltungsstrukturreform", Münster 2003, S. 25.

He mentions that French and Dutch authors used the term derogatory and Westphalian authors criticized that. In the footnote he gives four further references.

  • P. Casser, Der Raum Westfalen in der Literatur des 13. bis 20. Jahrhunderts, in: Der Raum Westfalen. Bd. II, 2: Untersuchungen zu seiner Geschichte und Kultur, Berlin 1934, S. 1-32.
  • Barbara Krug-Richter: Das Land der Pumpernickel und der Schinken? Regionale westfälische Küche zwischen Stereotyp und Realität, in: Westfälische Forschungen 45, 1995, S. 242-270.
  • Peter Johanek: Auf der Suche nach Westfalen. Wandlungen im Bild einer historischen Landschaft, Münster 1995, S. 12-15.
  • Martha Bringemeier: Die Westfalen, in: Martin Wähler: Der deutsche Volkscharakter. Eine Wesenskunde der deutschen Volksstämme, Jena 1937, S. 43ff.

I have no access to these works, the first on can be found via Google Books.

Usual caution is to be applied when dealing with scholarly works from 1933-1945.

deepsearch

Westphalia also figures in Candide.

NothingLastsForever_

This seems to me to be references to the Peace of Westphalia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia

To some, this is seen as the single most important act in the political history of Western Europe. It set the general borders of the signatories in stone forever after, essentially creating the notion of legal sovereignty, and forever ending any aggressive wars of territorial expansion between the signatories.

Westphalian sovereignty is the concept that nation-states are entitled to the land that is currently theirs, and no other nation-state has the right to come in and take it by force:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westphalian_sovereignty

I'm really surprised no one has mentioned this yet here. Let me know if you have any questions.