The Victorian Ethic of Self-Help and its Implications for Contemporary Ageing

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.Proverbs 22: 6 Humankind has a major task on its hands . . . how to deal with an exponentially-growing extended-ageing population. It is a problem as urgent as any confronting us at the present time, as urgent as global warming, terrorism, AIDS or any of the ongoing conflicts in the world. Labelled ‘ageing,’ the phenomenon is the process of growing older, a complex process whose impact is multiple. ‘Agein..

Eurocentrism in hybridity: a critique of Charles Van Onselen's "The Seed is Mine: the life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper 1894-1985"

For decades, contributors to the literary discourses of South Africa, writers, critics and commentators alike, worked to end apartheid. Now that apartheid is over, new discourses must evolve. For this reason, at this critical time of transition, all literary works coming out of South Africa are crucial to the continuity of South African literatures. Charles van Onselen's work would be a remarkable social history at any time but, coming as it does in the immediate post-apartheid period, it takes on a special relevance. This fictionalised social history which records the survival of a MaSotho peasant farmer in the western Transvaal during the pre-apartheid and apartheid periods gives a unique insight into an area of human existence that remains virtually unrecorded and only touched on in Sol T. Plaatje's Native Life in South Africa, written in 1910. This minutely-documented account of Kas Maine's story reflects the human condition of the Black population in rural South Africa as the screws of proxy European colonisation are tightened by South Africa's neo-colonialists. More significantly, van Onselen reconstructs the rural Black South African man whom apartheid not only degraded but also concealed from view. To what extent, however, is this reconstruction that of a White South African and what are his reasons for producing a model at this moment in South Africa's history

Eurocentrism in hybridity: a critique of Charles Van Onselen's "The Seed is Mine: the life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper 1894-1985"

For decades, contributors to the literary discourses of South Africa, writers, critics and commentators alike, worked to end apartheid. Now that apartheid is over, new discourses must evolve. For this reason, at this critical time of transition, all literary works coming out of South Africa are crucial to the continuity of South African literatures. Charles van Onselen's work would be a remarkable social history at any time but, coming as it does in the immediate post-apartheid period, it takes on a special relevance. This fictionalised social history which records the survival of a MaSotho peasant farmer in the western Transvaal during the pre-apartheid and apartheid periods gives a unique insight into an area of human existence that remains virtually unrecorded and only touched on in Sol T. Plaatje's Native Life in South Africa, written in 1910. This minutely-documented account of Kas Maine's story reflects the human condition of the Black population in rural South Africa as the screws of proxy European colonisation are tightened by South Africa's neo-colonialists. More significantly, van Onselen reconstructs the rural Black South African man whom apartheid not only degraded but also concealed from view. To what extent, however, is this reconstruction that of a White South African and what are his reasons for producing a model at this moment in South Africa's history

Colloques de la S.F.E.V.E./Congrès de la S.A.E.S.

Volume 63 of Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens which was initially published in April 2006, is a four-section issue with a collection of articles selected from four different conferences. Ten contributions came from the annual SFEVE conference which was held in Paris 13 – Villetaneuse in January 2004 (‘Excess’). The 44th SAES Conference which was held in Versailles – St Quentin in May 2004 (‘Parcours et détours’) gave us one paper. The 28th SFEVE conference which was held in Clermont-Ferrand in January 2005, (‘Ageing’) provided us with twelve papers, and finally the 45th SAES Conference which was held in Toulouse – Le Mirail in May 2005 (‘Texte(s), contexte(s), hors-texte(s)’) gave us seven papers. We wish you some happy (re)reading! Le volume 63 des Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, initialement publié en avril 2006, est un numéro entièrement consacré aux actes de quatre colloques au cours desquels ont été sélectionnées les meilleures contributions. Le 27e Colloque de la SFEVE qui s’est tenu à Paris 13 – Villetaneuse en janvier 2004 sur le thème de « L’excès », a permis de recueillir 10 articles. L'atelier de la SFEVE lors du 44e congrès de la SAES qui s’est tenu à Versailles – St Quentin en mai 2004, sur le thème « Parcours et détours » a fourni 1 article. Le 28e Colloque de la SFEVE qui s’est tenu à Clermont-Ferrand en janvier 2005 sur le thème « Vieillir », a permis de recueillir 12 articles. Enfin l'atelier de la SFEVE lors du 45e congrès de la SAES qui s’est tenu à Toulouse – Le Mirail en mai 2005 portant sur le thème de « Texte(s), contexte(s), hors-texte(s) » a donné 7 articles. Nous vous souhaitons bonne (re)lecture pour ce très riche volume