Kaiyue He
Published: 6 July 2022
June 2022
The funding was used to support a research trip to Prague to present a paper at The Third World Congress of Scottish Literatures. This congress was held at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, on 22-26 June 2022.
Kaiyue's paper ‘From Bruntsfield to Bulawayo: Homeland and Household in Muriel Spark’s African Writings’ analyses the concepts of homeland and household in Spark’s African poems and fictions published in the 1950s and 1960s, and some parts of her 1992 memoir Curriculum Vitae. In the first section, ‘Household or homeland: from Bruntsfield to Bulawayo’, Kaiyue focussed on Spark’s sense of exile in Edinburgh and in Africa. In the second section, ‘Inside or outside: racial boundary in the white settler’s household’, she analysed the white settlers’ household in South Africa from the perspective of housekeeping, housework, and decorating. Both the exterior style and interior decoration of these houses are investigated as semiotic systems that signal the gender, class, and race of the inhabitants. Kaiyue's argument is that Spark’s African writings present a fierce attack on racial segregation, which was rooted in the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, as well as class snobbery and patriarchy before and during the early stages of apartheid in South Africa (1948-1970).
This paper constitutes an essential part of Kaiyue's thesis and is necessary for the completion of the degree. Spark’s African writings have received some critical attention, but her African poems and the racial politics of her fiction remain under-investigated. This project aims to provide a comprehensive study of Spark’s exploration of the racial politics in her African writing.
First published: 6 July 2022
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