12 research outputs found
Displaying Sara Baartman, the âHottentot Venusâ
Parties of Twelve and upwards, may be accommodated with a Private Exhibition of the HOTTENTOT, at No. 225 Piccadilly, between Seven and Eight o'Clock in the Evening, by giving notice to the Door-Keeper the Day previous. A woman will attend (if required).</p
Zoe Wicomb and the Cape Cosmopolitan
This essay places ZoĂ« Wicomb's writing in the context of recent accounts of the ânew cosmopolitanismâ, and argues that the imagined figure of the Cape cosmopolitan produced in her writing puts into question the either-or relation of the terms ânationalâ and âcosmopolitanâ. Comparing the metaphorics of the âtavern of the seasâ (applied to the Cape of Good Hope) with the US national myth of the âmelting potâ, the essay re-situates the former in order to claim for the Cape cosmopolitan an inclusivity, fluidity and non-hegemonic character practically denied the latter. The essay focuses largely on David's Story, but refers also to You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town, Playing in the Light and The One that Got Away, and foregrounds the ironic mode of Wicomb's writing, in which all claims to truth, including the claims about the ânew cosmopolitanismâ put forward in recent cosmopolitan studies as well as in this essay, are held in question.Dorothy Drive