The Olive Schreiner Letters Project
The Olive Schreiner Letters Project
The Olive Schreiner Letters Project is funded by the ESRC. It will transcribe, analyse and publish the complete extant Olive Schreiner letters presently in archival locations world-wide. Through this, it will also contribute theoretically and methodologically to the use of letters and other epistolary materials in social science and humanities research.
The feminist and socialist writer and social theorist Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was one of the most important - and radical - social commentators of her day. Her published writings include novels (The Story of An African Farm, Undine, From Man to Man), allegories (Dreams, Dream Life and Real Life, Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland), social theory (The Political Situation, Closer Union, Woman and Labour).
Around 7000 Schreiner letters are extant, with most never having been previously published or discussed. They are an unparalleled source for exploring the unfolding thinking of one of the great feminist theorists and key New Woman writers. They are also a rich resource around which to formulate methodological and theoretical means of analysing a large-scale epistolary dataset.
Schreiner's developing analysis and social theorising in her letters includes such topics as colonialism under transition, metropolitan feminism & socialism, prostitution & its analysis, changing understandings of 'race' & capital, imperialism 'on the ground' in southern Africa, the South African War & its concentration camps & women's relief organisations, international perspectives on women's franchise campaigns, labour issues, international feminist networks, pacifism & war economies, and political and economic changes in South Africa post WW1.
The Olive Schreiner Letters Project team is multi-disciplinary and multi-site and its members are:
Prof Liz Stanley, Sociology, University of Edinburgh, Principal Investigator
Dr Helen Dampier, Cultural History, Leeds Metropolitan University, Co-Investigator
Prof David Shepherd, HRI, University of Sheffield, Co-Investigator
Dr Andrea Salter, Sociology, University of Edinburgh, Research Associate
Ms Sarah Poustie, Sociology, University of Edinburgh, Project PhD Studentship-Holder
Dr Kiera Chapman, HRI, University of Sheffield, Project Data Developer
HRI Digital are responsible for the technical development and support of the project.
Website: http://www.oliveschreinerletters.ed.ac.uk
Post: Olive Schreiner Letters Project, Room 6.21 Chrystal Macmillan Building, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9LD, UK.
Email: oliveschreiner@aol.com OR liz.stanley@ed.ac.uk
© Copyright of the Olive Schreiner Letters Project, 2008. Photograph of Olive Schreiner courtesy of the National Library of South Africa. INIL 3181 1895