This book examines literary romance as a vehicle for the ideological contradictions of British imperialism in South Africa from 1880 to 1920. Drawing on postcolonial theory and cultural materialism, Laura Chrisman discusses the fictions of mining (King Solomon's Mines) and Zulu history (Nada the Lily) by the imperialist Rider Haggard, and shows how feminist Olive Schreiner and black nationalist Sol Plaatje produced counter-fictions of metropolitan and African resistance. The novels are examined as responses to political, economic, and social developments of imperial capitalism: mining; the Anglo-Zulu War; the creation of Rhodesia; the 1913 Natives' Land Act, and the formation of the ANC.

• Introduction


• Manufacturing mystery from mining: King Solomon's Mines


• Trading on Africa: King Solomon's Mines


• The British conquest of Zululand: Haggard's politics and ideology


• The fictions of Zulu history: Nada the Lily


• Colonialism demystified: Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland


• Alternative empires? Englishness and Christianity in Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland


• Transforming Haggardian romance: pastoralism and sexual politics in Mhudi


• Complex relations: African nationalism, imperialism, and form in Mhudi