Il cuore spezzato di H. Rider Haggard: letteratura, amore e politica in Jess (1887)

• Main Author: Evander Ruthieri Da Silva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Diacronie 2019-07-01
• Series: Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea
• Subjects: History and literature; Storia e letteratura; H. Rider Haggard; Jess; Sudafrica; South Africa; Storia delle emozioni; History of sensibilities
• Online Access: http://www.studistorici.com/2019/07/19/silva_numero_38/

This article intends to investigate the place of affections and sensibilities in colonial literature produced in the late nineteenth century, specifically in the novel Jess (1887), by H. Rider Haggard. Written from Haggard’s experiences with the colonial administration in South Africa, the novel narrates the love triangle between a British soldier and two young girls on a farm in Transvaal. The plot evidences a wide range of resentments nourished by the author in front of the results of the conflicts against the Boers in 1881, but simultaneously demonstrates the relations between politics and sensibilities, love and colonialism, through the fictional narrative.