David Johnson

Gebundenes Buch

Imagining the Cape Colony

History, Literature, and the South African Nation

Beschreibung

Examines literatures and histories of the Cape in relation to postcolonial debates about nationalism How 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 history * Materialist/historicist approach to postcolonial literature * Critical engagement with dominant theories of colonial nationalism

Autor

David Johnson is Professor of Literature at The Open University. He is the author of Shakespeare and South Africa (1996) and Imagining the Cape Colony (2012), as well as the principal author of Jurisprudence. A South African Perspective (2001), and co-editor of A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English (2005) and The Book in Africa (2015). He was co-editor of the series Postcolonial Literary Studies, and is editor of the ongoing series Key Texts in Anti-colonial Thought.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Edinburgh University Press
• Seitenzahl: 232
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. Dezember 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 231mm x 155mm x 23mm
• Gewicht: 635g
• ISBN-13: 9780748643080
• ISBN-10: 0748643087
• Artikelnr.: 33765786