Biography
| 1855 |
Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner Cronwright better
known as Olive Schreiner was born on March 24, 1855 in Wittebergen, Basutoland
currently known as Lesotho in South Africa. (Wilson et al. 418).
She was named after her three dead brothers. Olive Schreiner
was the ninth child of twelve children from parents who where missionaries.
Her family was separated due to poverty and she soon began to move from
one sibling’s house to another. She was self-taught.
Due to poverty Schreiner found a job as a governess and began to write
due to isolation and loneliness when she worked as a governess. |
| 1881 |
Olive Schreiner went to London with 3 manuscripts in
her hand (Undine, The history of African farm, and from man to man) |
| 1883 |
The Story of African farm was published under
a pseudonym of Ralph Iron.
The Story of an African Farm introduced Victorian England
to modern ideas on sexuality and the nature of truth.”(Poupard 392)
When first published, The Story of an African Farm was an immediate success,
“appealing to Victorian readers because of its original subject matter,
exotic setting, and unconventional views of religion and marriage.”
(Poupard 392) However, when the public detected that the author was
a woman “the book was reassessed as un-Christian and antifeminine.” (Poupard
392) |
| 1894 |
Olive Schreiner married Samuel Cronwright, a lawyer and
a politician. (Unusually Samuel Cronwright added her last name to
his.) |
| 1911 |
Schreiner published Woman and Labour.
One can best see Schreiner’s contribution to feminist
thought. It was once regarded as the bible of the international feminist
movement. In Woman and Labour. Schreiner noted that:
“When all the branches of productive labor be considered,
the value of the labor of the two halves of humanity will be found so identical
and so closely to balance that no superiority can possibly be asserted
to either as the result of the closest analysis.” (Kolmar and Bartkowski,
110)
In other words, when observing women’s and men’s work
one will not find difference in the production. Furthermore, Schreiner
“argues that men and women will benefit equally from women’s improved economic
status and that equality will lead to improved sexual relations between
women and men.” (Wilson et al. 419)This concept is certainly very
radical for her time. |
| 1895 |
A month after her 40th birthday, she gave birth to a
child that lived less than a day. She never got over her daughter’s
death. ”Schreiner suffered from severe attacks of asthma, which
may have been psychological in origin which often prevented her from writing,
talking, or traveling. She spent many time away from her husband
due to her asthma and due to her political involvement. |
| 1920 |
Olive Schreiner died on December 12, 1920 in Cape Town,
South Africa. |
Contribution to Feminist Thought:
Olive Schreiner was “probably the first white woman
to write novels about the African colonial situation.” (Wilson et al. 418)
In addition, she claimed that “blacks act as a laboring class on which
the South African economy depends, that race is a metaphysical as well
as physical reality, and that women understand what unites the races better
than men because of their common experience of mothering.” (Wilson et al.
419)
Olive Schreiner yearned for “universal equality
along with individual freedom and spiritual well-being.”(Buck 343)
In addition, Schreiner was passionate demanding social and economic liberation
for women. (Locher 433)
Primary Works:
During her life Schreiner published:
The Story of an African Farm in 1883, Dreams
in
1890,
Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland in 1897, Woman
and Labour in 1911,
Stories, Dreams, and Allegories in 1923
The Letters of Olive Schreiner from 1876 to 1920 published
in 1924, and two unfinished novels the From Man to Man and Undine.
Bibliography
Buck, Claire, ed. The Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s
Literature. New York: Prentice Hall General Reference,
1992.
Locher, Frances, ed. Contemporary Authors.
Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1992.
Poupard, Dennis, ed. Twentieth-Century Literary
Criticism. Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1983.
Wilson, Katharina, Paul Schlueter, and June Schlueter,
eds. Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe An
Encyclopedia. New
York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1997. |
