Seminar: 'First Light, False Dawn: 1910, the Union of SA, and the invention of heritage'

History Department

Speaker:  Dr Peter Merrington (Professor Extraordinaire affiliated to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Western Cape)

Topic and abstract:  ‘First Light, False Dawn: 1910, the Union of SA, and the invention of heritage’

This illustrated paper is a synopsis of a forthcoming book with similar title. It explores a ‘heritage paradigm’ from the early twentieth century, the role of Oxford neo-Hegelians in this, and the importing of English cultural frames of reference to South Africa in the years preceding Union. Topics include the influence of the English National Trust (1895) and the vernacular architectural revival, the rise of the concept and practices of ‘Africana’, the Cape as ‘Mediterranean’, the genre of historical pageantry, the Van der Stel controversy, and the role of fiction in the imagining of the new nation.

Date:  Tuesday, 21 September 2010

Time:  13:00-14:00

Venue:  History Department, Room 316, Wilcocks Building, Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch