Olive Schreiner’s From Man to Man: Alternative Models of Reality and the Problematics of Human Reasoning

Abstract

This article considers the presence of evolutionary theory in Olive Schreiner’s novel From Man to Man (1926) and the ways in which it  evokes her notion of a horizontal equality between all life forms. Her model extends the materiality inherent in the evolutionary  substructure to incorporate the noumenal. This in turn is validated by direct perception which, in Schreiner’s view, bypasses the distorting  rational mind that she sees as responsible for creating hierarchical dualistic models. Such models for Schreiner reflect a tendency to categorise and label in order to separate and dominate. The article considers how Schreiner’s use of an experimental narrative form allows her to explore and express her egalitarian principles. It further proposes that a re-evaluation of From Man to Man is salutary in our
current environmental crisis, as it reminds us of how an evolutionary, longterm and non-anthropocentric perspective can communicate the importance of the natural world.

Keywords: Olive Schreiner, From Man to Man, ecocriticism, evolutionary theory