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= Olive_Schreiner =
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Introduction
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Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 - 11 December 1920) was a South
African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best
remembered today for her novel 'The Story of an African Farm' (1883),
which has been highly acclaimed. It deals boldly with such
contemporary issues as agnosticism, existential independence,
individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the
elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier.
Since the late 20th century, scholars have also credited Schreiner as
an advocate for the Afrikaners, and other South African groups who
were excluded from political power for decades, such as indigenous
blacks, Jews, and Indians. Although she showed interest in socialism,
pacifism, vegetarianism, and feminism amongst other topics, her views
escaped restrictive categorisations. Her published works and other
surviving writings promote implicit values such as moderation,
friendship, and understanding amongst all peoples, and avoid the
pitfalls of political radicalism, which she consciously eschewed.
Called a lifelong freethinker, she also continued to adhere to the
spirit of the Christian Bible and developed a secular version of the
worldview of her missionary parents, with mystical elements.
Schreiner is also known for her later novel, 'From Man To Man Or
Perhaps Only' (1926), published posthumously. She had not completed
its revisions before her death. The first edition was produced by her
husband, Samuel Cronwright-Schreiner. It was re-edited and published
by the University of Cape Town Press (edited and introduced by Dorothy
Driver). This edition corrects previous errors and provides another
ending to the novel, in Schreiner's own words, in addition to her
husband's summary. 'From Man to Man or Perhaps Only' was said by
Schreiner to be her favourite among her novels. From exploring white
women's confinement to domestic life in colonial-era South Africa, the
novel eventually expands its gaze to include black women and girls,
whose presence gradually informs the central character's struggle to
re-create herself and educate her children against the racism and
sexism of the period.
Biography
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Karel Schoeman, a historian, and authority on Schreiner in South
Africa, wrote that she was an outstanding figure in a South African
context. He summarises the basic pattern of her life as follows,
noting her periods of living out of the country:
Early life
============
Olive Emily Albertina Schreiner was the ninth of twelve children born
to a missionary couple at the Wesleyan Missionary Society station at
Wittebergen in the Eastern Cape, near Herschel in South Africa. Her
parents, Gottlob Schreiner and Rebecca (née Lyndall), married in
England in 1837. She was named after her three older brothers, Oliver
(1848-1854), Albert (1843-1843) and Emile (1852-1852), each of whom
died before she was born. Her childhood was a harsh one: her father
was loving and gentle, though impractical, which led to difficulties
for the family; but her mother Rebecca was intent on teaching her
children the same restraint and self-discipline that had been a part
of her upbringing. Olive received virtually all of her initial
education from her mother, who was well-read and gifted.
Her eldest brother, Frederick Samuel (1841-1901), obtained a BA at
London University and founded New College in Eastbourne in 1877. He
remained as headmaster until late 1897, but continued to run the
junior school until 1901. He died in 1901 at the Grand Hotel in
Eastbourne and was interred in the town.
When Olive was six, her father Gottlob transferred to Healdtown in the
Eastern Cape to run the Wesleyan training institute there. As with so
many of his other projects, he could not manage the responsibility and
was expelled in disgrace for trading against missionary regulations.
He was forced to make his own living for the first time in his life
and tried a business venture. Again, he failed and was insolvent
within a year. The family lived in abject poverty as a result.
When Schreiner was nine, her sister Helen ("Ellie") died, and this had
a profound effect on the survivor's outlook. Ellie was the twelfth and
last child. She died at seventeen months (1864-1865). Schreiner
dedicated the 'Prelude' of 'From Man to Man' to Ellie, as well as to
her own daughter, who died shortly after her birth.
In a number of letters, Schreiner discusses Ellie's death as a key
turning point in her life. In a letter to John T. Lloyd of 1892, for
instance, Schreiner commented:
When her older brother, Theophilus (1844-1920), was appointed as
headmaster in Cradock in 1867, Schreiner and two of their siblings
went to live with him. She also attended his school, where she
received formal education for the first time. But she was no happier
in Cradock than she had been in Wittebergen or Healdtown. Her siblings
were very religious, but, like many learned Victorians, Olive had
already questioned the Christianity of her parents, and it was the
cause of many arguments that she had with her family.
Consequently, when Theo and another brother left Cradock for the
diamond fields of Griqualand West, Olive chose to become a governess.
On the way to her first post at Barkly East, she met Willie Bertram,
who shared her views of religion and who lent her a copy of Herbert
Spencer's 'First Principles'. This text was to have a profound impact
on her. While rejecting religious creeds and doctrine, Spencer also
argued for a belief in an Absolute that lay beyond the scope of human
knowledge and conception. This belief was founded in the unity of
nature and a teleological universe, both of which Olive was to
appropriate for herself in her attempts to create a morality free of
organised religion.
After this meeting, Schreiner travelled from place to place, accepting
posts as a governess with various families, later leaving them because
of personal conflict with her employers. One issue which always
surfaced was her unusual view of religion. Her apostasy did not sit
well with the traditional farm folk among whom she worked.
Another factor was that she was somewhat unconventional in her
relationships, for she was uncertain as to how to relate sexually to
her male employers in many cases, and men in general. In his study of
Schreiner's character, Karel Schoeman writes:
And this person, who Schoeman identifies strongly with Schreiner in
agreement with other researchers, is described by Ellis as ...
During this time she met Julius Gau, to whom she became engaged under
doubtful circumstances. For whatever reason, their engagement did not
last long, and she returned to live with her parents and then with her
brothers. She read widely and began writing seriously. She started
'Undine' at this time. As in the case of her later husband,
Cronwright, she may have been attracted to Gau, as to other men, for
his dominant personality, maturity, and physicality:
However, her brothers' financial situation soon deteriorated, as
diamonds became increasingly difficult to find. Olive had no choice
but to resume her transient lifestyle, moving between various
households and towns, until she returned briefly to her parents in
1874. It was there that she had the first of the asthma attacks that
would plague her for the rest of her life. Since her parents were no
more financially secure than before and because of her ill-health,
Olive was forced to resume working to support them.
Over the next few years, she accepted the position of governess at a
number of farms, most notably the Fouchés, who provided inspiration
for certain aspects of 'The Story of an African Farm', which she
published under the pseudonym "Ralph Iron", as well as a small
collection of stories and allegories called 'Dream Life and Real
Life'.
England and Continental Europe
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However, Olive's real ambitions did not lie in the direction of
writing. She had always wanted to be a doctor but had never had enough
money to pay for the training. Undaunted, she decided that she would
be a nurse as that did not require her to pay anything. By 1880, she
had saved enough money for an overseas trip, and she applied to the
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Scotland. In 1881, she travelled to
Southampton in England. Once there, she was never to realise her dream
of becoming a medical practitioner, as her ill-health prevented her
from completing any form of training or studying. She was forced to
concede that writing would and could be her only work in life.
Despite that, she still had a passion to heal society's ills and set
out to do with her pen what she could not with pills. Her 'Story of an
African Farm' was acclaimed for the manner in which it tackled the
issues of its day, ranging from agnosticism to the treatment of women.
It was also the cause of one of her most significant and long-lasting
friendships, as the renowned sexologist Havelock Ellis wrote to her
about her novel. Their relationship soon developed beyond intellectual
debate to a genuine source of support for Schreiner.
She finally met Ellis in 1884 when she went with him to a meeting of
the Progressive Organisation, a group for freethinkers to discuss
political and philosophical views. This was one of a number of radical
discussion groups to which she was to belong and which brought her
into contact with many important socialists of the time. Another
friendship that would prove to be influential was with Edward
Carpenter, the founder Socialist and gay rights activist, which, as
Stephen Gray shows, remains hardly explored. In addition to the
Progressive Organisation, she also attended meetings of the Fellowship
of the New Life and Karl Pearson's Men and Women's Club, where she was
insistent on the critical importance of woman's equality and the need
to consider men as well as women when looking at gender relationships.
However, her own relationships with men were anything but happy. She
had refused a proposal from her doctor, Bryan Donkin, but he was
irritatingly persistent in his suit of her. To make matters worse,
despite her reservations about Karl Pearson and her intentions just to
remain his friend, she soon conceived an attraction for him. He did
not reciprocate her feelings, preferring Elizabeth Cobb. In London,
Schreiner often found herself at odds with society's expectations of
"respectable behaviour". Edward Carpenter described her as "a pretty
woman of apparently lady-like origin who did not wear a veil and
seldom wore gloves, and who talked and laughed even in the streets
quite naturally". She clashed with a succession of landlords over her
frequent male visitors, and once, outside her lodgings at 16 Portsea
Place near Marble Arch, she was nearly arrested as a prostitute.
In 1886, she left England for Continental Europe under something of a
cloud, travelling between Switzerland, France, and Italy before
returning to England. During this time, she was tremendously
productive, working on 'From Man to Man' and publishing numerous
allegories. She also worked on an introduction to Mary
Wollstonecraft's 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women'.
Return to South Africa
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Given the situation in England, it is perhaps not surprising that
Schreiner chose to return to South Africa, sailing back to Cape Town
in 1889. The return home was unsettling for her - she felt extremely
alienated from the people around her, but at the same time experienced
a great affinity for the land itself. In an attempt to reconnect with
her surroundings, she became increasingly involved in local politics
and produced a series of articles on the land and people around her,
published posthumously as 'Thoughts on South Africa'. Through her work
with local politics she became intimate friends with Emily Hobhouse,
Jessie Rose-Innes and Elizabeth Maria Molteno, influential women
activists with similar opinions on civil and women's rights.
Her involvement with Cape politics led her into an association with
Cecil John Rhodes, with whom she would soon become disillusioned and
about whom she would write her bitterly satirical allegory 'Trooper
Peter Halket of Mashonaland'. This disillusionment began with his
support of the "strop bill" that would allow black and coloured
servants to be flogged for relatively small offences.
Her opposition to the "strop bill" also brought her into contact with
, a politically active farmer. They were of the same mind on the
"Native Question" and on Rhodes, and Schreiner soon fell in love with
him. During a brief visit to England in 1893, she discussed with her
friends the possibility of marrying him, although she was concerned
that she would find marriage restrictive. She put aside these doubts,
however, and they were married in 1894, after which they settled at
Cronwright's farm.
The next few years were difficult and unsettled ones for them.
Schreiner's worsening health forced the couple to move constantly,
while her first and only child, a daughter, died within a day. This
loss was worsened by the fact that all her other pregnancies would end
in miscarriages. However, she found solace in work, publishing a
pamphlet with her husband on the political situation in 1896 and
'Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland' the next year. Both of these
isolated her from her family and the people around her, and she
experienced long spells of loneliness during this period of her life.
In 1898, the couple moved to Johannesburg for health reasons. In the
aftermath of the Jameson Raid, they were seen as the champions of the
Republican cause in the face of the inevitable war between Boer and
British. Schreiner tried to persuade South African officials to turn
away from the path of war, and, when that failed, wrote 'The South
African Question by an English South African' in an attempt to open
the English public's eyes to the reality of the situation. That was
equally unsuccessful, but Schreiner was undaunted. Throughout the war,
she continued to defend Boer interests and argue for peace, as did her
brother William Philip Schreiner, even though she was suffering
physically and psychologically and all her efforts only met with
ridicule. As a means of distraction, she began reworking the "sex
book" she had started in England into 'Woman and Labour', which is the
best expression of her characteristic concerns with socialism and
gender equality. Driven by her prophetic vision of a non-racist,
non-sexist South Africa, during the Boer War Schreiner lived in the
tiny hamlet of Hanover, virtually a British army camp.
The last few years of Schreiner's life were marked by ill-health and
an increasing sense of isolation. Despite this, she still engaged in
politics and was determined to make her mark on a new constitution,
especially through works like 'Closer Union'. In this polemic, she
argued for more rights not only for blacks but also for women. She
also joined the newly founded Cape Branch of the Women's
Enfranchisement League in 1907, becoming its vice-president. However,
she refused to lend her support to it any longer when other branches
wished to exclude black women from the vote.
Final days
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When 'Woman and Labour' was finally published in 1911, Schreiner was
severely ill, her asthma worsened by attacks of angina. Two years
later, she sailed alone to England for treatment but was trapped there
by the outbreak of World War I. During this time, her primary interest
was in pacifism - she was in contact with Gandhi and other prominent
activists like Emily Hobhouse and Elizabeth Maria Molteno - and she
started a book on war, which was abbreviated and published as 'The
Dawn of Civilisation'. This was the last book she was to write. After
the war, she returned home to the Cape, where she died in her sleep in
a boarding house in 1920. She was buried later in Kimberley. After the
death of her husband, Samuel Cronwright, her body was exhumed, and
along with her baby, dog and husband, she was reburied atop Buffelskop
mountain, on the farm known as Buffelshoek, near Cradock, in the
Eastern Cape.
Selected works
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* 'The Story of an African Farm', 1883 (as "Ralph Iron")
* 'Dreams', 1890
* 'Dream Life and Real Life', 1893
* 'The Political Situation in Cape Colony', 1895 (with S. C.
Cronwright-Schreiner)
* 'Three Dreams in a Desert. Under a Mimosa-Tree', 1897
* 'Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland', 1897
* 'The South African Question. By an English South African', 1899
* 'An English South African Woman's View of the Situation', a critique
on the Transvaal difficulty from the pro-Boer position, 1899
* 'So Here Then are Dreams', 1901
* 'A Letter on the Jew', 1906
* 'Closer Union: a Letter on South African Union and the Principles of
Government', 1909
* 'Woman and Labour', 1911
* 'Woman and War', 1914
* 'Who Knocks at the Door?', 1918
* 'The Dawn of Civilisation', 1921
* 'Thoughts on South Africa', 1923. Posthumously
* 'Stories, Dreams and Allegories', 1923. Posthumously
* 'From Man to Man or Perhaps Only', 1926. Posthumously
* 'Undine', 1929. Posthumously
Correspondence
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The Olive Schreiner Letters Online database is a collection of over
5,000 extant letters written to or from Schreiner. The letters cover a
diverse range of topics from South African political history, 'New
Women' writers, international social movements, to feminist social
theory. The 'OSLO' edition provides; full diplomatic transcriptions,
including omissions, insertions, and 'mistakes'; extensive full-text
search facilities; topic collections of Schreiner letters; a 'dramatis
personae' providing bibliographical information on Schreiner's
correspondents and many other people mentioned in her letters; new
collections of letters as they become available; detailed information
on all Schreiner's publications, including in journals and newspapers,
as well as books; and downloadable publications from the 'OSLO'
research team.
Audio book
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* 'Story of an African Farm'
Recent scholarship
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* Carolyn Burdett's 'Olive Schreiner' (Oxford University Press, 2013)
, 9780746310939
* Liz Stanley, Andrea Salter & Helen Dampier (2013), 'Olive
Schreiner, Epistolary Practices and Microhistories, 'Cultural and
Social History', 10:4, 577-597.
* Stanley, L., Salter, A., & Dampier, H. (2013), 'The Work of
Making and the Work it Does: Cultural Sociology and 'Bringing-
Into-Being' the Cultural Assemblage of the Olive Schreiner Letters' in
'Cultural Sociology' '7'(3), 287-302.
* 'I Just Express My Views & Leave Them to Work': Olive Schreiner
as a Feminist Protagonist in a Masculine Political Landscape with
Figures' by Liz Stanley and Helen Dampier. Published in 'Gender and
History', Vol. 24, Issue 3 (November 2012).
* Helen Dampier's article, 'Re-Readings of Olive Schreiner's Letters
to Karl Pearson: Against Closure', 'OSLP Working Papers on Letters,
Letterness & Epistolary Networks' No 3, University of Edinburgh,
pp. 46-71
*'Olive Schreiner Globalising Social Inquiry: A Feminist Analytics of
Globalization' by Stanley, L., Dampier, H., & Salter, A. in 'The
Sociological Review' (2010) '58'(4), 656-679.
*'"Her letters cut are generally nothing of interest": the Heterotopic
Persona of Olive Schreiner and the Alterity-Persona of
Cronwright-Schreiner', an article by Liz Stanley and Andrea Salter in
'English in Africa', Volume 36, Number 2, 1 October 2009, pp.
7-30(24).
*Ann Heilmans' 'New Woman Strategies: Sarah Grand, Olive Schreiner,
and Mona Caird' (Manchester University Press, 2004) , 9780719057595
*Article by John Kucich: 'Olive Schreiner, Masochism, and Omnipotence:
Strategies of a Preoedipal Politics' in 'Novel: A Forum on Fiction
('2002) 36 (1): 79.
*Liz Stanley's article, 'Shadows lying across her pages: epistolary
aspects of reading 'the eventful I' in Olive Schreiner's letters' in
'Journal of European Studies' (2002).
*'Olive Schreiner and the Progress of Feminism: Evolution, Gender and
Empire' by Carolyn Burdett (Springer, 2001) , 9780230598973
*Paula M. Krebs' article, 'Olive Schreiner's Racialization of South
Africa' in 'Victorian Studies' Vol. 40, No. 3 (Spring, 1997), pp.
427-444 (18 pages).
*'Fictions of the Female Self: Charlotte Bronte, Olive Schreiner,
Katherine Mansfield' by Ruth Parkin-Gounelas (Springer 1991) ,
9780230378254
*Mark James Perry's thesis 'The life of Olive Schreiner: a
psychobiography.' University of the Free State (31 July 2012).
See also
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* Olive Schreiner Prize - an award named in her honour
* 'Heretics', a collection of essays by G.K. Chesterton published in
1905, who praises her as "a fierce, brilliant, and realistic
novelist... Her literary kinship is with the pessimistic fiction of
the continent; with the novelists whose very pity is cruel. Olive
Schreiner is the one English colonial who is not conventional" in his
diatribe on English Colonization.
Further reading
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* Buchanan-Gould, Vera. 'Not Without Honour: The Life and Writings of
Olive Schreiner', London: Hutchinson, 1948.
* First, Ruth & Ann Scott. 'Olive Schreiner', London: Andre
Deutsch, 1980.
* Hobman, D. L. 'Olive Schreiner: Her Friends and Times', London:
Watts & Co., 1955.
* Horton, Susan R. 'Difficult Women, Artful Lives: Olive Schreiner and
Isak Dinesen, In and Out of Africa', Johns Hopkins University Press,
1995.
* Stanley, Liz. 'Reintroducing Olive Schreiner: Decoloniality,
Intersectionality and the Schreiner Theoria.' Routledge, 2022.
External links
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*
*[
http://zar.co.za/schreiner.htm South African biography of Schreiner]
at zar.co.za
*[
http://www.places.co.za/html/schreiner.html One of the places where
Schreiner lived in South Africa: Cradock] at www.places.co.za
*[
http://www.google.co.za/search?q=olive+schreiner&hl=en&hs=cw0&sa=G&channel=s&prmd=ibo&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=adHvTOCOEoWglAeb1rnjDA&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=18&ved=0CHUQ5wIwEQ
Timeline of Schreiner's life] at www.google.co.za
*[
http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/WC/OliveSchreiner/
Schreiner's thinking on women remembered in authentic South African
context] at heritage.thetimes.co.za
*
*
*
*[
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5070
Biography by Carolyn Burdett, University of North London]
*[
http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/SchreinerCrono.html A Chronology
of Olive Schreiner]
*[
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/olive_schreiner/ Olive Schreiner
quotes]
*[
http://www.oliveschreiner.org/ Olive Schreiner Letters Online]
*[
http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/vwwp/VAB7185 Schreiner, Olive.
'Undine.' With an Introduction by S.C. Cronwright-Schreiner New York
And London: Harper & Bros, 1928].
[
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/welcome.do Victorian Women
Writers Project]
*
*
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