IMAGINING THE CAPE COLONY, history, literature, and the South African nation

222 pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2012

David Johnson relates the literatures and histories of the Cape to postcolonial debates about nationalism.

"This is an outstandingly insightful and innovative study. David Johnson single-handedly opens up new research terrains by challenging current orthodoxies about literary and historical representation and he brings the early Cape Colony into the centre of contemporary debates about identity, power and the pervasive presence of inequality in post-apartheid South Africa." Nigel Worden, King George V Professor of History, University of Cape Town

"The excitement of reading this book is in its delivering more than the title indicates. Grounded in meticulous historical research, Johnson's work engages with contemporary debates about the nation, offering the innovative argument that colonial forms of nationhood and nationalism, resisted/ subverted/ even ignored normative concepts developed in the northern hemisphere." Benita Parry, Emerita Professor, University of Warwick

David Johnson is senoir lecturer in English at The Open University. His other writings include the books "Shakespeare and South Africa" (1996) and "Jurisprudence: a South African perspective" (2001).