Colonial Space

First published in 1992, this book is about the space of a colony and how it was produced. It began as a study of the literature of the German colony of South-West Africa between the years 1884 and 1915. The author’s aim is to demonstrate the active role which literature had played in structuring the experience of the colony.

If it could be shown that literature not only describes, but also helps to structure the forms of experience, then it would follow that it also plays an important role in structuring the experience of colonisation, and hence the form of the colony itself. From the outset, therefore, the study was concerned with a number of issues centring around colonisation, representation, experience, and social form, where spatiality is the concept which allows us to understand how these various aspects of colonialism interrelate.

Colonial Space is a profound exploration of these themes and the intricate ways in which literature shapes and reflects the colonial experience.