Building a Nation of Readers? Women’s Organizations and the Politics of Reading in South Africa, 1900-1914
Keywords:
Nation-building, reading regulation, women's organizations, imperialism, nationalism, school libraries, reading unions, reading circles, Nasiebou, leesbeheer, vroueorganisasies, imperialisme, nasionalisme, skoolbiblioteke, leesunies, leeskringeAbstract
English
Women and women’s organizations exploited available opportunities and spaces to assert themselves in South African public life in the early-twentieth century. Their educational interventions combined a special concern with nation-building and the kinds of history read by schoolchildren. This article examines the reading initiatives of a number of women’s organizations in South Africa from 1900 to 1914. It reveals their political, educational, cultural, economic and personal entanglements, and their attempts to apply reading to nation-building. Their ambiguous legacy influenced the later expansion of reading and literacy schemes and the development of free public library services in South Africa.
Afrikaans
Bou ’n nasie van lesers? Vroueorganisasies en die leespolitiek in Suid-Afrika, 1900-1914
Vroue en vroueorganisasies het beskikbare geleenthede en ruimtes benut om hulleself in die vroeë twintigste eeu in die Suid-Afrikaanse openbare lewe te laat geld. Hulle opvoedkundige ingrypings was ’n kombinasie van ’n besondere belangstelling in nasiebou en in die tipe geskiedenis wat deur skoolkinders gelees is. Hierdie artikel ondersoek die leesinisiatiewe van ’n aantal vroueorganisasies in Suid-Afrika van 1900 tot 1914. Dit bekyk hulle politieke, opvoedkundige, kulturele, ekonomiese en persoonlike agendas en hulle pogings om lees in diens van nasiebou te gebruik. Hulle veelsinnige nalatenskap het die latere groei van lees en geletterdheidskemas, asook die ontwikkeling van gratis openbare biblioteekdienste in Suid-Afrika beïnvloed. Nation-building
