Representations of Africa in Muriel Spark’s writings
Muriel Spark (1918-2006) travelled from Scotland to Africa and stayed there from 1937 to 1944. Africa is a recurrent presence in her work. Critics focus mainly on her African-themed poems and stories. They pay less attention to depictions of that continent in her other work and tend to gloss over he...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University Press
2024
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| In: |
The Innes review
Year: 2024, Volume: 75, Issue: 1, Pages: 23-44 |
| Further subjects: | B
Muriel Spark
B Missionaries B Africa B Scotland B Witch doctors B Cannibalism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Muriel Spark (1918-2006) travelled from Scotland to Africa and stayed there from 1937 to 1944. Africa is a recurrent presence in her work. Critics focus mainly on her African-themed poems and stories. They pay less attention to depictions of that continent in her other work and tend to gloss over her problematic use of language. This article addresses Spark's representation of the African landscape and her different portrayals of Africans, white settlers, and missionaries. It also explores her deployment of the familiar colonial tropes of cannibalism and ‘witch doctors’. It argues that Spark's representations of Africa in her works are at once ironic, comedic, satirical, and wittily arch, yet remain open to charges of being stereotypical and problematic, particularly at a time of public scrutiny and media concern with discriminatory language. These representations reveal that Spark mainly speaks for white missionaries rather than the downtrodden Africans in her writings. This article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of Scottish involvement in colonialism in the modern period by untangling the connections between race, religion, and literary culture in Spark's writings. |
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| ISSN: | 1745-5219 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Innes review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3366/inr.2024.0357 |