Dreams (Paperback)

Olive Schreiner

ISBN 10: 1554815649 / ISBN 13: 9781554815647

Published by Broadview Press Ltd, Peterborough, 2020

About this Item

Paperback. Dreams is a work that defies conventional categorization; however, one might best capture its unique formal structure by construing it as a series of prose poems or narrative paintings, a starkly modern text inflected by the far older tradition of the medieval dream-vision poem. Though a work of prophecy, it proceeds with a light touch. The sequence of eleven dreams, loosely interlinked, leaves us to wrestle with our doubts; it takes up thorny questions that challenge a culture right where it may tend to be its proudest. The landscape of the work shifts as it moves among the African savannah, congested late-industrial London, and the olive tree-studded hillsides of Italy. The intersectionality of Schreiners writingits concern with gender, sexual orientation, class, nation, and racemakes her a particularly salient voice for todays students.The appendices to this edition provide an accessible representation of Schreiners key contexts, South African and British as well as American. The introduction features a biographical overview of a writer wrestling with questions of social justice pertinent to her own era yet relevant to our contemporary moment. A work that defies conventional categorization; however, one might best capture Dreams unique formal structure by construing it as a series of prose poems or narrative paintings, a starkly modern text inflected by the far older tradition of the medieval dream vision poem. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781554815647

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dreams (Paperback)
• Publisher: Broadview Press Ltd, Peterborough
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1554815649
• ISBN 13: 9781554815647
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Dreams is a work that defies conventional categorization; however, one might best capture its unique formal structure by construing it as a series of prose poems or narrative paintings, a starkly modern text inflected by the far older tradition of the medieval dream-vision poem. Though a work of prophecy, it proceeds with a light touch. The sequence of eleven dreams, loosely interlinked, leaves us to wrestle with our doubts; it takes up thorny questions that challenge a culture right where it may tend to be its proudest. The landscape of the work shifts as it moves among the African savannah, congested late-industrial London, and the olive tree-studded hillsides of Italy. The intersectionality of Schreiner’s writing―its concern with gender, sexual orientation, class, nation, and race―makes her a particularly salient voice for today’s students.

The appendices to this edition provide an accessible representation of Schreiner’s key contexts, South African and British as well as American. The introduction features a biographical overview of a writer wrestling with questions of social justice pertinent to her own era yet relevant to our contemporary moment.

About the Author

Barbara Black is Professor of English at Skidmore College and Graduate Faculty at The School of Letters, The University of the South. Carly Nations is an M.A. graduate at The University of the South. Anna Spydell is an M.A. candidate at The University of the South.