Mister Johnson
Mister Johnson is a 1939 novel by Joyce Cary .
The novel contains many personal experiences from the time Joyce Cary was in Africa. The author drafted a concentrated and straightforward story. This story exemplifies the conflict-ridden clash of European civilizing striving for hegemony and ritualized African tribal culture.
action
The protagonist, named Mister Johnson, is a 17 year old Nigerian. He works as a secretary and office assistant for the head of a district station in a remote Fada region. His boss is Mr. Rudbeck. He likes to do the tasks that Mister Johnson has to do, but with little concentration. He repeatedly steals from the cash register and safe in his own office; sometimes with greater success and sometimes with less success. He consoled his many believers far beyond their patience. He makes a wrong turn.
For the most part, Mister Johnson is only interested in parties and feasts that are not normal. In addition, it is very important to him to value his own image as a real advocate of the English crown: "I am a government man - I am not suitable for work by an ordinary man."
He has a young wife named Bamu. She is traditionally a devoted housekeeper and comforter. Mister Johnson attended a mission school.
His wife Bamu and his acquaintances do not get along with the idea and his European values. They ridicule them and reject them.
Bamu leaves him. He is also fired by Rudbeck for illegally collecting road tolls. In another attempt to steal the money from the postage, Mister Johnson stabs an officer on watch. He confessed and allowed himself to be arrested. Mister Johnson is sentenced to death by hanging by the Protectorate Government. Rudbeck fulfills his last wish, because Mister Johnson wants to die from a quick pistol shot instead of a rope.
Johnson wants to do everyone justice and is therefore very motivated and overzealous. However, he has no opinion of his own and derives his self-affirmation and self-esteem solely from praise from his English superiors.
He always lives according to the "cyclist principle". That means "hunch up, step down."
If he receives orders from his superior Rudbeck, he fulfills them with great pride and good humor.
The character in the novel never loses her naivete and her devotion to fate. Johnson cannot recognize the conflict with his own compatriots through his role as their overseer punishing authority and also informer. Mister Johnson ultimately fails because he is guided by the value system of the European colonial power. The European colonial power meets him with impatience and compassion, with incomprehension and indifference.
The novel is a milestone on the way to the contemporary debate on theories of colonialism. The African meets the novel with a mixture of condescending benevolent sympathy and opinionated sharpness.
filming
In 1990 the film was adapted by Bruce Beresford (direction) and William Boyd (screenplay).
The film was released in the United States in April 1991. It is classified in the film genre "Drama". The film was shot in Kano, Kano State in Nigeria, among others. The length of the film is 101 minutes.
The main characters in the film are:
| Maynard Eziashi | ... | Mr. Johnson |
| Pierce Brosnan | ... | Harry Rudbeck |
| Edward Woodward | ... | Sargy Gollup |
| Beatie Edney | ... | Celia Rudbeck |
The film is set in 1923. There is a clash of cultures between British imperialists and a black man. This black man is called Mister Johnson and he is a strange personality. He is an educated black man who does not belong to the natives or to the British. Mister Johnson works for the local UK magistrate. Johnson thinks he is English, but he has never been to England. He is determined and always tries to get further in his life.
expenditure
The work “Mister Johnson” was published in 1954 by the Hamburg “Krüger Verlag”. The work comprises 252 pages.
Also in 1954, “Mister Johnson” was published by the “Deutsche Hausbücherei” publishing house in Hamburg. The novel has 300 pages.
1960 appeared in the publishing house “Dt. Buchgemeinschaft ", Berlin / Darmstadt / Vienna the issue" Mister Johnson "with 302 pages.
In the publishing house “Reinbek b. Hamburg / Rowohlt ”1961 a work“ Mister Johnson ”with 227 pages.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Göran Nieragden: "Mister Johnson" . In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): " Kindlers Literatur Lexikon " . 3rd, completely revised edition. tape 3 . Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 567 f .
- ↑ a b Film adaptation of "Mister Johnson". Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
- ^ Catalog of the German National Library. Retrieved February 26, 2019 .