English and the Colonisation of Form

Abstract

This article poses the question of whether formal procedures of colonisation generated in the nineteenth century have been reproduced in the adoption, by critics of Black South African literature, of the implicit assumption that the received generic forms of "imaginative literature" should form the basis of scholarship and inquiry. The article suggests that the context of "English" and "literature" should be sought in the broader signifying practices of colonialism and seeks to describe the wider context in which Black subjects of missionary teaching were compelled to negotiate identity in terms of a civilising colonialism founded in English as a master discourse.

Opsomming
In hierdie artikel word die vraag aan die orde gestel of formele prosedures van kolonisasie wat gedurende die negentiende eeu gegenereer is, gereproduseer is in die oorname deur sommige kritici van swart Suid-Afrikaanse letterkunde van die implisiete veronderstelling dat die oorgelewerde generiese vorme van "imaginative literature" die basis behoort te vorm van wetenskapsbeoefening en ondersoek. Daar word in die artikel aan die hand gedoen dat die konteks van "Engels" en "letterkunde" gesoek behoort te word in die breer tekenpraktyke van kolonialisme, en daar word gepoog om die breer konteks te beskryf waarbinne swart subjekte van sendingonderwys verplig was om oor hulle identiteit te onderhandel in terme van 'n beskawende kolonialisme wat gegrond is in Engels as 'n meesterdiskoers.