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“Her letters cut are generally nothing of interest”:1 The Heterotopic Persona of Olive Schreiner and the Alterity-Persona of Cronwright-Schreiner
Abstract
The writings of feminist writer and social theorist Olive Schreiner (1855-
1920), author of The Story of an African Farm, Dreams, From Man to Man,
Closer Union, Woman and Labour and Thoughts on South Africa among
other works, are usually encountered through these publications,
supplemented by the secondary literature on her life and works, rather than
archival materials such as the remaining manuscript writings and
unpublished letters. Some components of this secondary literature have over
time taken on almost primary status: specifically, the biographies by
Schreiner’s (estranged) husband Samuel ‘Cron’ Cronwright-Schreiner (The
Life) and more recently by Ruth First and Ann Scott, Karel Schoeman (Only
An Anguish), and the edited collections of her letters by Cronwright-
Schreiner (The Letters), Richard Rive and Yaffa Claire Draznin.
1920), author of The Story of an African Farm, Dreams, From Man to Man,
Closer Union, Woman and Labour and Thoughts on South Africa among
other works, are usually encountered through these publications,
supplemented by the secondary literature on her life and works, rather than
archival materials such as the remaining manuscript writings and
unpublished letters. Some components of this secondary literature have over
time taken on almost primary status: specifically, the biographies by
Schreiner’s (estranged) husband Samuel ‘Cron’ Cronwright-Schreiner (The
Life) and more recently by Ruth First and Ann Scott, Karel Schoeman (Only
An Anguish), and the edited collections of her letters by Cronwright-
Schreiner (The Letters), Richard Rive and Yaffa Claire Draznin.
