Buried narratives : representations of pregnancy and burial in South African farm novels
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Authors
Anthony, Loren Estelle
Issue Date
1998-11
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Burial , Colonial discourse , Farm novel , Illegitimacy , Illegitimate pregnancy , Land , Postcolonial theory , Representation
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation examines the way in which South African colonial texts may be
read for the historical signs they inadvertently reveal. The history of land
acquisition in South Africa may be read through the representation of burial and
illegitimate pregnancy in South African farm novels. Both burial and illegitimate
pregnancy are read as signifiers of illegitimacy in the texts, surfacing, by indirection,
the question of the illegitimacy of land acquisition in South Africa. The South
African farm novel offers a representational form which seeks (or fails) to mediate
the question of land ownership and the relationship between colon and indigene. In
the four texts under discussion, Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm,
Florence Ethel Mills Young's The Bywonner[sic], Pauline Smith's The Beadle and
Daphne Rooke's Mittee, the representation of burial and illegitimate pregnancy is
problematic and marked by narrative displacements and discursive breakdowns.
KEY TERMS burial, colonial discourse, farm novel, illegitimacy, illegitimate
pregnancy, land, postcolonial theory, representation
Description
Citation
Anthony, Loren Estelle (1998) Buried narratives : representations of pregnancy and burial in South African farm novels, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/17825>