Class, imperialism and literary criticism

William Ngidi, John Colenso and Matthew Arnold

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3139848
AutoresJeff Guy (0000-0002-8353-8185, University of KwaZulu-Natal, autor correspondente)
Ano1997
Volume23
Fascículo2
Páginas219-241
Data de publicação1997-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057079708708534
OpenAlexW2009506472
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas2

This paper examines the relationship which developed between Natal's first Anglican bishop, John William Colenso, and William Ngidi, his assistant in translation and the study of the Zulu language in the 1850s and early 1860s. It shows how both men gained greater insight into the nature of religious belief through this experience, and how it led Colenso to enter the current debates on belief by means of a radical critique on the shallowness of the contemporary attitudes and teaching of his church. Amongst Colenso's most effective critics was Matthew Arnold whose scathing attack on Colenso's work did much to ruin the bishop's reputation as a serious thinker on religious matters. But these attacks also reveal in Arnold a profound fear of the consequences of the democratization of knowledge which is significant given his formative role in the development of English literary studies. The historical processes which link William Ngidi's questioning of Colenso with the latter's interventions in the debates on religious belief, and their impact on the development of Arnold's writing on literary criticism, all suggest how important it is to include the imperial context in any study of cultural developments at the metropole

Art · Criticism · Literary criticism · Literature · Sociology · Zulu · Classics · History · Philosophy · Religious studies · South African History and Culture