Nature Bound by the Body: Humans and Nature in Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm

Abstract

In my paper I am trying to answer the question: does Lyndall have to die in Schreiner’s novel Story of an African Farm in order to achieve unity with nature? I argue that the definition of nature that Hannah Freeman introduces leaves the heroine, Lyndall, with only one option: death. I draw on Raymond Williams to define “nature” as a complex idea with varied definitions. I then use Karl Marx and Jason Moore to discuss how some critics may disagree with Freeman and argue instead that nature and humans are already unified. I suggest that the moon in the novel complicates their version of “the web” by equalizing nature and human-made objects, but favoring some humans over others. In opposition to Freeman's argument that humans are not together with nature, I suggest that it is not that humans themselves are unnatural. Rather, the restrictions humans impose on each othern limit a person’s ability to connect with nature and even other people.