CHAPTER XI.
South African Literature.
T N proposing to discuss South African literature as a part of South African life—that is to say, of the life of the English colonists—we are confronted at the outset by a difficulty. The political unity of the Anglo-Saxon race has been lost, but its literary unity is unquestioned. Shakespeare and Milton belong as much to the United States of America, or the commonwealth of Australia, as to England: the literary heritage of which they form part is a common possession of the English under whatever sky they live. In the face of this obvious fact, must not any distinction which is drawn between writers in England and writers beyond the seas be purely artificial, or one which would most suitably be considered among distinctions which are based upon conditions which are merely part of the personality of the author ?
On the other hand, we must remember that this very Elizabethan and Stuart literature was itself the outcome of a period of national expansion, similar in character to the Victorian expansion, though it was infinitely less rapid and far-reaching. In spite, then, of this difficulty, we must try to form some definite conception of colonial or extra-insular literature. This conception will be more of the nature of a working hypothesis than a definition, but without something of the kind, however tentative, we shall not be able to make any advance at all in the enquiry we have in hand. It will clear the ground a little if we decide first of all what a work of this class is not.
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