Rereading the Imperial Romance: British Imperialism and South African Resistance in Haggard, Schreiner, and Plaatje
Laura Chrisman
Abstract
This book examines literary romance as a vehicle for the ideological contradictions of British imperialism in South Africa. It draws upon postcolonial theory and cultural materialism to discuss the imperialist Henry Rider Haggard's fictional accounts of mining in King Solomon's Mines, and Zulu history in Nada the Lily, examining these novels as fraught responses to the introduction of capitalist modernity. It goes on to analyse the counter-narratives of metropolitan and African resistance of feminist Olive Schreiner and black nationalist Sol Plaatje. The book shows how Schreiner's is a much mo ... More
This book examines literary romance as a vehicle for the ideological contradictions of British imperialism in South Africa. It draws upon postcolonial theory and cultural materialism to discuss the imperialist Henry Rider Haggard's fictional accounts of mining in King Solomon's Mines, and Zulu history in Nada the Lily, examining these novels as fraught responses to the introduction of capitalist modernity. It goes on to analyse the counter-narratives of metropolitan and African resistance of feminist Olive Schreiner and black nationalist Sol Plaatje. The book shows how Schreiner's is a much more challenging example of anti-imperialist fiction than Robert Conrad's Heart of Darkness, published two years later. The discussion of Plaatje's Mhudi considers the book as a direct response to Haggard's imperialism and Schreiner's feminist theory. Locating the book through the politics and epistemology of the early ANC, the book reveals how Plaatje challenges Haggard's misogyny and fatalistic historiography. Mhudi, it argues, is a novel whose nationalist and sexual politics are considerably more complex than has been recognized. Plaatje uses his narrative form to articulate both radical and liberal alternatives to white South African rule. The book demonstrates how South Africa played an important if now overlooked role in British imperial culture, and shows the impact of capitalism itself in the making of racial, gender and national identities.
Keywords:
romance,
British imperialism,
South Africa,
cultural materialism,
Henry Rider Haggard,
Olive Schreiner,
Sol Plaatje,
ANC,
black nationalism,
sexual politics
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2000 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198122999 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122999.001.0001 |
