Rereading the Imperial Romance

Literary romance from 1880 to 1920 is rich in the ideological contradictions of British imperialism. Drawing on postcolonial theory and cultural materialism, Chrisman discusses the fictions of mining and Zulu history 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.