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Johnson, David (2011). Imagining the Cape Colony. History, Literature and the South African Nation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
URL: http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748643080?te...
Abstract
How the Cape Colony was imagined as a political community is examined by considering a variety of writers, from major European literati and intellectuals (Camoes, Southey, Rousseau, Adam Smith), to well-known travel-writers like Francois Levaillant and Lady Anne Barnard, to figues 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 in relation both to current debates in postcolonnial studies, and to contemporary post-apartheid commentaries on literature and history associated with the Thabo Mbeki presidencies.