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

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.

Laura Chrisman is Visiting Associate Professor of English, Brown Universitv, and Lecturer in English, University of Sussex.