Olive carpenter

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Olive carpenter (1889)

Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner (born March 24, 1855 in Wittebergen near Herschel , Basotho region , today South Africa ; † December 11, 1920 in Wynberg , South Africa) was a South African writer . She stood up for the oppressed and was best known as an early representative of the women's movement .

Life

Schreiner was the ninth of twelve children of the German missionary Gottlob Schreiner and an English pastor's daughter who was also a missionary. She got her first name after her three brothers Oliver, Emil and Albert who died early. Her parents were members of the Wesleyan Church ; her father was fired from the Head of Healdtown College after trying to earn extra income as a trader. Olive Schreiner spent her childhood in poverty; she acquired a lot of knowledge herself and later worked in various places as governess . In 1881 Olive Schreiner traveled to the United Kingdom with her own savingsIn order to become a nurse and doctor, she was unable to complete her training because of her asthma and began her writing career. Her first, semi-autobiographical work The Story of an African Farm appeared in 1883 under the male pseudonym Ralph Iron. The German translation was published shortly afterwards under the title History of an African Farm . The book describes the fate of the young, unmarried Lyndall and deals with topics such as sexuality and pregnancy before marriage, as well as the role of religion and the church in the oppression of women. The book was in the United Statesand a great success in many European countries. It was not until the second edition in 1891 that the book appeared under its real name. In England she made friends with numerous intellectuals, including the sex researcher Havelock Ellis , with whom she remained connected throughout her life. She was a feminist , declared an opponent of clerical power and a socialist . She was on the board of directors of the Socialist Democratic Federation , which later became the Labor Party . She was also a friend of Eleanor Marx , the daughter of Karl Marx .

Olive carpenter (before 1897)

In 1889 she moved back to the Cape Colony , in 1894 she married the farmer Samuel Cronwright, who shared her political views. In 1895 she gave birth to a daughter who died a few hours later; as a result, she suffered several miscarriages. After initially working with British entrepreneur and politician Cecil Rhodes , she turned against him. In 1897 she published the book Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland , in which she denounced Rhodes' imperialist policies. During the Second Boer War , British troops destroyed her home and burned her manuscripts. Schreiner spent several years in a concentration campspend. She campaigned for the Boers and was in close contact with Emily Hobhouse , who, as a British woman, tried to alleviate the consequences of the war for the Boer population.

Between 1907 and 1913, Schreiner lived in De Aar, South Africa . In 1907 she joined the Women's Enfranchisement League (about: "League for women's suffrage ") in the Cape region and soon became its vice-president. But she withdrew because other regional groups in the league wanted to exclude black women from the right to vote . In 1909 the essay Closer Union appeared, in which she called for more rights for blacks. In 1911 her book Woman and Labor was published, which influenced the emancipation movement of women until the 1930s.

Schreiner House in Cradock, memorial to Olive Schreiner and her siblings

During the First World War, she went to the UK for treatment for her asthma. During this time her pacifist book The dawn of civilization was published. In 1918 she returned to South Africa again. She died in 1920 and, at her request, was buried in the grave of her child and dog; After the death of her husband, the three bodies were exhumed and buried with the body of the man at Buffelskop near Cradock at a grave site that Schreiner had chosen during his lifetime.

Her younger brother William Philip Schreiner was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1898 to 1900 .

Awards

In 2003, Schreiner was posthumously awarded the South African Order of Ikhamanga in gold.

The Olive Schreiner Prize has been awarded annually to non-established, talented writers since 1964. The English Academy of Southern Africa honors a prose writer, playwright or poet for an English-language work alternately every year .

Works

  • 1883: The Story of an African Farm.
    • German: story of an African farm. Novel . From d. Engl. Transl. u. with e. Afterwards provided by Elisabeth Schnack . Diogenes, Zurich 1964 (again 1981; 1998, without afterword). ISBN 978-3-257-20885-6
  • 1890: Dreams.
    • German as dreams. 4th edition. Cotta Nachf., Stuttgart 1924.
  • 1893: Dream Life and Real Life.
  • 1895: The Political Situation in Cape Colony (with SC Cronwright-Schreiner)
  • 1897: Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland.
    • German as Peter Halket in Mashonalande. Ferdinand Dümmler's publishing bookstore, Berlin 1898.
  • 1899: An English South African Woman's View of the Situation.
  • 1906: A Letter on the Jew.
  • 1909: Closer Union: a Letter on South African Union and the Principles of Government.
  • 1911: Woman and Labor.
    • German as a woman and work. Eugen Dieterichs, Jena 1914.
  • 1921: The Dawn of Civilization.
  • 1923: Thoughts on South Africa. (posthumously)
  • 1923: Stories, Dreams and Allegories. (posthumously)
  • 1926: From Man to Man. (posthumously)
  • 1929: Undine. (posthumously)

Film adaptations

2004: The Story of an African Farm. South Africa, directed by David Lister

literature

  • Karel Schoeman : Olive Schreiner: 'n Lewe in Suid-Afrika, 1855–1881. Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg 1989, ISBN 0-94746437-9 .
  • Joyce Avrech Berkman: The healing imagination of Olive Schreiner: beyond South African colonialism. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1989, ISBN 0-87023-676-8 .

Web links

Commons : Olive Schreiner  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
Wikisource: Olive Schreiner  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h South African History Online: Olive Schreiner . Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed June 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ Eric Rosenthal: Southern African Dictionary of National Biography . Frederick Warne, London & New York, 1966, p. 332
  3. ↑ List of recipients of the medal 2013 (English), accessed on June 20, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Carpenter, Olive
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carpenter, Olive Emilie Albertina (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION South African writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Wittebergen , Basotho area
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1920
Place of death Wynberg , South Africa