Imagining the Cape Colony

History, Literature, and the South African Nation

AvDavid Johnson

Inbunden, Engelska, 2011

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Beskrivning

Examines literatures and histories of the Cape in relation to postcolonial debates about nationalismHow the Cape Colony was imagined as a political community is examined by considering a variety of writers, from major European literati and intellectuals (Camões, Southey, Rousseau, Adam Smith), to well-known travel writers like François Levaillant and Lady Anne Barnard, to figures on the margins of colonial histories, like settler rebels, slaves, and early African nationalists. Complementing the analyses of these primary texts are discussions of the many subsequent literary works and histories of the Cape Colony. These diverse writings are discussed first in relation to current debates in postcolonial studies about settler nationalism, anti-colonial resistance, and the imprint of eighteenth-century colonial histories on contemporary neo-colonial politics. Secondly, the project of imagining the post-apartheid South African nation functions as a critical lens for reading the eighteenth-century history of the Cape Colony, with the extensive commentaries on literature and history associated with the Thabo Mbeki presidencies given particular attention.Key Features:Major European literary figures and philosophers read in the context of colonial historyMaterialist/historicist approach to postcolonial literatureCritical engagement with dominant theories of colonial nationalism

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2011-12-07
Mått:156 x 234 x 23 mm
Vikt:635 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:232
Förlag:Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:9780748643080

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Mer om författaren

David Johnson is Professor of Literature in the Department of English and Creative Writing at The Open University. He is the author of Shakespeare and South Africa (1996), Imagining the Cape Colony: History, Literature and the South African Nation (2012) and Dreaming of Freedom in South Africa: Literature between Critique and Utopia (2019); and the co-editor of A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English (2008); The Book in Africa: Critical Debates (2015); and Labour Struggles in Southern Africa (2023). He is the General Editor of the Edinburgh University Press series Key Texts in Anti-Colonial Thought.

Recensioner i media

The excitement of reading this book is in its delivering more than the title indicates. Grounded in meticulous historical research, Johnson’s work engages with contemporary debates about the nation, offering the innovative argument that colonial forms of nationhood and nationalism, resisted/subverted/even ignored normative concepts developed in the northern hemisphere.

Innehållsförteckning

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Remembering the Khoikhoi victory over Dom Francisco d'Almeida at the Cape in 1510: Luiz de Camões and Robert Southey; 2. French Representations of the Cape 'Hottentots': Jean Tavernier, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and François Levaillant; 3. The Scottish Enlightenment and colonial governance: Adam Smith, John Bruce, and Lady Anne Barnard; 4. African Land for the American Empire: John Adams, Benjamin Stout, and Robert Semple; 5. Historical and literary re-iterations of Dutch Settler Republicanism; 6. Literature and Cape Slavery; 7. History and the Griqua Nation: Andries Waterboer and Hendrick Hendricks; Conclusion; Index.