Rider Haggard, Classics, and Great Zimbabwe: Constructing Lost Cities
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Rider Haggard, Classics, and Great Zimbabwe: Constructing lost cities in King Solomon’s Mines, She, and Elissa By Liliana Sheena Carrick-Tappeiner 209512290 Submitted in fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Classics in the Programme of Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. 2016 Declaration Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, in the Graduate Programme in Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I declare that this dissertation is my own unaided work. All citations, references and borrowed ideas have been duly acknowledged. It is being submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in Classics in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Science, University of KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa. None of the present work has been submitted previously for any degree or examination in any other University. Student Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: ___________________________________________________ i Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Elke Steinmeyer, whose endless support and efforts have contributed enormously to this project. Her helpful insights and eye for detail have played a considerable role in guiding this research. I would also like to acknowledge the generous financial assistance of the National Research Foundation. The views expressed in this thesis, however, are my own and in no way represent the views of the National Research Foundation. Melissa Joralemon, the archivist at Ipswich School, also deserves thanks for providing me with valuable information concerning Haggard‘s schooling background. Special mention should also be made of the contribution of the staff and students of Classics Department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal for their encouragement and feedback at their colloquia. Additionally, I wish to thank two UKZN scholars – Prof. John Hilton and Prof. Lindy Stiebel – who have worked on Haggard in their own research and have generously provided encouragement and access to their private libraries containing rare texts relating to Haggard. On a more personal note, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my mother, Denise Carrick, whose enthusiasm and unconditional support have been instrumental in my academic endeavours. Lastly, I wish to thank Alan Muller for his relentless encouragement and assistance throughout the course of this research. ii Abstract The British novelist Sir Henry Rider Haggard, who is arguably best known for his swashbuckling African adventure stories, wrote a considerable number of works concerned with the presence of ancient white cities in southern Africa. These narratives appear to have been inspired by nineteenth century theories surrounding the Ruins of Great Zimbabwe which came to the public‘s attention after their (re)discovery in 1871 by the German explorer Karl Mauch. Reluctant to attribute such accomplishments to local African ingenuity, laymen and archaeologists developed theories that the ruins could have been built only by an ancient white race. This motif appears in two of Haggard‘s lost city novels, King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and She (1887), and a work of historical fiction, Elissa; or The Doom of Great Zimbabwe (1900). In addition to this archaeological influence, a significant amount of Classical material has also contributed to these narratives in various ways. The aim of this dissertation is to establish the role of Great Zimbabwe and Classics in Haggard‘s composition of these works. Chapter One provides a discussion of Haggard‘s background and takes aspects such his education and connection to the Ruins of Great Zimbabwe into account so as to establish his familiarity with the two topics which dominate this study. Chapter Two explores Haggard‘s initial venture into the lost city genre with King Solomon’s Mines and demonstrates the parallels between the ruins and his narrative. The second half of the discussion is concerned with the contribution of Classics in his description of landscape, people and events. Chapter Three looks at Haggard‘s treatment of the lost city genre and his engagement with Classics and ancient civilizations in She. The chapter focuses on aspects such the myth of Atlantis, the contribution of Egyptology and the role of Classical females in Haggard‘s portrayal iii of in novel‘s eponymous character. Chapter Four is concerned with the influence of nineteenth century Zimbabwean archaeology and two ancient accounts of the Carthaginian queen Dido in Haggard‘s construction of Elissa‘s plot. iv Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 Theory ..................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 8 Literature Review.................................................................................................. 11 Chapter One: Biographical Background .................................................................. 14 Chapter Two: King Solomon’s Mines ...................................................................... 26 Chapter Three: She ................................................................................................... 59 Chapter Four: Elissa................................................................................................. 95 Conclusion .............................................................................................................117 Appendix ................................................................................................................124 Bibliography ...........................................................................................................133 v Introduction Theory It is through the framework and related theories of Reception Studies that this dissertation aims to establish the role and significance of Classics in a selection of two lost city novels and a work of historical fiction by Sir H. Rider Haggard: King Solomon’s Mines (1885), She (1887), and Elissa; or, The Doom of Great Zimbabwe. Reception Studies is a comparatively new field when considered against the related stands of Rezeptiongeschichte, Nachleben and the Classical Tradition, all of which are concerned with the transmission of ancient material and its reception post-antiquity.1 While still in its early stages, Reception Studies continues to grow and gain prominence, establishing itself alongside these related strands, notably as a discipline with approaches distinct enough to warrant its development as a separate field. Beneficial to understanding the appropriateness of Reception Studies to this research are the grounds behind its selection over the previously mentioned fields of the Classical Tradition, Rezeptiongeschichte and Nachleben. In the interests of brevity and relevance, however, I will li only review the Classical Tradition: a more familiar field in Anglophone Scholarship and subsequently a more understandable choice than Rezeptiongeschichte and Nachleben. That is not to say, however, that the latter two have no valuable contribution to make in Anglophone Scholarship, but are rather not necessary to explore given the scope and nature of this study. Thus, it is my intention to illustrate the suitability of Reception Studies by briefly investigating the concerns and aims of the Classical Tradition, and in this way demonstrating how the two are distinguishable and appropriate to respective studies. While the scope of the Classical Tradition 1 It should be acknowledged, however, that Reception Studies also engages with dissemination of Classical material during antiquity. 1 and Reception Studies may not be dissimilar, it is from their approaches and foci that their differences emerge. The Classical Tradition is concerned with how ―literature, art, and social structures of antiquity were handed down to successive generations, to be absorbed by new institutions and cultures‖ (Kallendorf 2007:1). This may lead to the understanding that the Classical Tradition attempts to study the influence of antiquity on subsequent cultures, albeit from the elevated position of the Classical world. This idea is further explained by Lorna Hardwick, a forerunner in the field of Reception Studies, who suggests that the Classical Tradition ―stud[ies] the transmission and dissemination of classical culture through the ages, usually with the emphasis on the influence of the classical writers, artists and thinkers on subsequent intellectual movements and intellectual works. In this context, the language which was used to describe this influence tended to include terms like ‗legacy‘‖ (2003:2). With emphasis placed on the influential role of the ancient source and the material handed down, its superiority is implied and the work of reception may be undermined. This idea is inherent in the word ‗tradition‘, as Kallendorf points out: ―Theidea that classics should be ‗handed down‘ derives from the etymology of the word ‗tradition‘, which comes from the word tradere, meaning ‗hand down, bequeath‘‖ (2007:1). Again, the idea of ‗handing down‘ material from antiquity, as if it were an inheritance, reinforces notions of superiority and authority. Furthermore, it suggests that the work of reception is indebted to the legacy of a nobler tradition. In this way, works of