Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm

Jessica Somers (University of Southern California)

Ed. by Grace Moore, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1883

Places

South Africa (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Olive Schreiner’s

The Story of an African Farm

was widely read and speculated upon in England and the United States following its publication in 1883. The only novel Schreiner published during her lifetime, and her most widely read work,

The Story of an African Farm

is considered one of the earliest pieces of Anglophone feminist fiction. It was one of the first colonial novels to gain widespread popularity in England, and it remains a seminal work in the South African settler canon (Bristow, 1992, viii; McClintock, 1995, 259). Though its legacy has been complicated by questions surrounding the novel’s unusual form, debates between Schreiner’s literary contemporaries regarding her skill as a writer of fiction, and criticism that highlights its problematic racial politics, the work…

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2460 words

Citation: Somers, Jessica. "The Story of an African Farm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 May 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9305, accessed 27 July 2024.]

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