Revising Stanley’s footsteps: encountering the ‘other’ in Darkest England (1996) by Christopher Hope
Literator
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Revising Stanley’s footsteps: encountering the ‘other’ in Darkest England (1996) by Christopher Hope | |
| Creator | Roos, H. | |
| Description | As has now become a familiar image in Hope’s writings, once again ttie idea of looking at a society from the position of an outsider and an exile forms the central theme of Darkest England (1996). In this satirical novel, the tradition of nineteenth-century travel writings set in a colonial context is reversed, undermined, and then remarkably recreated to portray the present-day manifestation of encounters and relations between (black) Africa and the (white) West. Presenting the (fictional) journals of a Khoisan leader, David Mungo Booi, within a dynamic frame of reference to classical colonial texts by, among others, Livingstone and Stanley. Hope writes a new travel report. This essay discusses how, by the reversal of point of view, a change in time and space, and creating a satirical mood, the colonizer and the colonized are interchanged and the original texts are evoked to be rewritten. The notions of Self/Other, colonial /(post-)colonial and primitive/civilized are placed in new and disturbing contexts, adding to the complex structure of this fascinating text. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2000-04-26 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/lit.v21i1.444 | |
| Source | Literator; Vol 21, No 1 (2000); 85-98 Literator; Vol 21, No 1 (2000); 85-98 2219-8237 0258-2279 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/444/605
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