Rereading the Imperial Romance: British Imperialism and South African Resistance in Haggard, Schreiner, and Plaatje

ISBN-13: 9780198122999 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 256 str.

Laura Chrisman

Opis

This book examines literary romance as a vehicle for the ideological contradictions of British imperialism in South Africa from 1880 to 1920. Drawing on postcolonial theory and cultural materialism, Laura Chrisman discusses the fictions of mining (King Solomon's Mines) and Zulu history (Nada the Lily) by the imperialist Rider Haggard, and shows how feminist Olive Schreiner and black nationalist Sol Plaatje produced counter-fictions of metropolitan and African resistance. The novels are examined as responses to political, economic, and social developments of imperial capitalism: mining; the Anglo-Zulu War; the creation of Rhodesia; the 1913 Natives' Land Act, and the formation of the ANC.

Recenzje

Rereading the Imperial Romance is an important text for South African literary studies. Chrisman's nuanced reading of the interrelationship between history, politics and literary production provides fruitful scope for re-evaluating other marginalised writers and their interaction with colonialism. By shifting the centre of postcolonial studies onto Africa, Chrisman offers a valuable strategy for revisiting British Imperial literature.