The <Em>Karoo</Em>, <Em>The Veld</Em
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 1-16-2019 The Karoo, The Veld, and the Co-Op: The Farm as Microcosm and Place for Change in Schreiner, Lessing, and Head Elana D. Karshmer University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the African History Commons, and the African Languages and Societies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Karshmer, Elana D., "The Karoo, The Veld, and the Co-Op: The Farm as Microcosm and Place for Change in Schreiner, Lessing, and Head" (2019). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7823 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Karoo, The Veld, and the Co-Op: The Farm as Microcosm and Place for Change in Schreiner, Lessing, and Head by Elana D. Karshmer A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a concentration in literature Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Hunt Hawkins, Ph.D. Marty Gould, Ph.D. Gurleen Grewal, Ph.D. Phillip Sipiora, Ph.D. Date of Approval: Feb. 22, 2019 Keywords: postcolonial literature, African literature, Farm novels, agrarian writing Copyright © 2019, Elana D. Karshmer DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my father, Arthur I. Karshmer, PhD. A loving and indulgent father. A devoted husband to my mother. Those who knew him understood his commitment to family, to friends, to enjoying life, and to doing his part to making the world better. His memory is a blessing and a source of peace. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the generous support of the administration at Saint Leo University. In addition, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering belief in my abilities. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract......................................................................................................................................... iv Introduction: Locating “Postcoloniality” and the Farm ..........................................................1 The Plaasroman: A Brief Introduction .............................................................................1 Challenging the Plaasroman .............................................................................................3 Imperialism and Postcolonialism ...................................................................................4 The Effects of Legislated Racism: Exploitation, White Supremacy, and the Beginning of Apartheid ..............................................................................................6 Inequality and the Farm ...................................................................................................8 Chapter One: The Plaasroman: An Afrikaner Genre ..............................................................14 History of South Africa: The VOC ................................................................................14 Second Wave Colonization: The British Offensive ....................................................16 Briton v. Boer: Cultural and Economic Enterprises ...................................................18 The Plaasroman: The Afrikaner Farm Novel ................................................................21 America in the 1930s: A Similar Crucible ....................................................................29 Farm Novel or Plaasroman? ............................................................................................36 Chapter Two: The Farm Novel: Representing Labor, Race, and Gender in the Imperial World ......................................................................................................................................37 The Idea of a White African Genre ...............................................................................37 Plaasroman: Representing the Land in Literature .......................................................39 Georgics and the Anti-Pastoral: New Representations of the Land ........................42 Representing the Real: Beyond the Plaasroman ...........................................................45 Production and Domesticity: Capitalism after Imperialism and the “Perils” .......47 The Nature of the Beast: Black/White Interaction on the Farm ..............................51 Reconsidering the Public and the Private: A Place for Agency? ..............................54 Women on the Farm .......................................................................................................57 Chapter Three: The Story of an African Farm: Nascent Anti-Colonialism, Feminism, and Anti-Racism on the Karoo .....................................................................................................62 Introduction to the Novel ..............................................................................................62 The Farm as Microcosm: Finding a Place for SAF ......................................................64 SAF: Feminist and Anti-Imperialist ..............................................................................68 Beyond the Plaasroman: The English Farm Novel ......................................................69 i Finding a Place for the Native? .....................................................................................72 Using Gender Inequality to Comment on Racial Inequality ....................................77 The Farm as Representation of South Africa ..............................................................80 South Africa Outside the Farm .....................................................................................83 “The Commodification of Women” .............................................................................85 The Farm: Center of the Universe .................................................................................89 Chapter Four: Desire on the Veld: Agency, Social Norms, and Farming in Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing ..............................................................................................90 Connecting Rhodesia to its South African Colonial History ....................................90 GIS as Pastoral .................................................................................................................92 The Economics of Native Farming and the Disruption of White Colonials ...........93 Maintaining the Color Bar: Essential to White Supremacy ......................................94 GIS as Anti-Pastoral ........................................................................................................95 The Domestic Sphere: A Space of Turmoil ..................................................................96 The Veld: Echoes of Domestic Anxiety .........................................................................98 Power Relationships in GIS: Reflections of the Imperial Process ..........................100 The Veld: Native Man Personified ..............................................................................103 Role of the Native Man in the White Settler Home .................................................105 Re-Thinking the Presence of Black Labor: Re-Thinking the Plaasroman ...............106 Consequences of Breaking “The Colour Bar” ...........................................................107 An Awkward Sexuality ................................................................................................110 Moses: “All Body, No Mind” ......................................................................................112 The Farm: Change through Violence or Meaningful Connections? ......................113 Chapter Five: Golema Mmidi, African Microcosm: The Farm as Place and Community in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather ................................................117 Head: A “Coloured” Woman in South Africa ..........................................................117 A Story of Place .............................................................................................................119 Tribalism: An Alternative to Colonialism? ...............................................................120 The Advantages of Communal Living: Modern yet Ancient .................................122 Landscape: A Common Point in RCG, SAF, and GIS ..............................................124 Farm Novels: Creating a Place for Africans in Africa .............................................125 Land Ownership and the Plaasroman .........................................................................127 Representing Race Beyond Color ...............................................................................127 Utopia and the Pastoral ................................................................................................129 Beyond Binary Oppositions: The Postcolonial Georgic ..........................................131 Gilbert: The Great White Help? ..................................................................................134 “Keeping Up with the Joneses”: A Reasonable Goal in Golema Mmidi? .............136 The Effects of Modern Farming ..................................................................................137