PAGEANTRY AND PRIMITIVISM - FAIRBRIDGE,DOROTHEA AND THE AESTHETICS OFUNION

This article seeks to introduce the life and work of Dorothea Fairbrid ge, a long-forgotten yet prolific Cape colonial author as a worthwhile subject in South African literary history; it also seek (while descri bing the activities of Fairbridge's cultural coterie) to sketch the fi eld for further work in what is termed the 'aesthetics of Union' or Ca pe imperial aesthetics and iconogmphy.(1) For the sake of economy, sev eral specific topics will be emphasised within a broader discussion of aesthetics and iconography: aspects of the patriarchal construction o f Victorian Cape Town; some details concerning the Cape's 'Mediterrane an' and 'Egyptian' connections; a description of the pro-Union magazin e, The State, run by members of Milner's 'kindergarten'; and, finally the events of the 1910 Union Paseant. Regarding the impact of modernis m in Edwardian Cape Town, the paper focuses on two aspects of this mov ement, namely 'pageantry' and 'primitivism'. A contrast is made betwee n taxonomical and iconographic cultural activity; and, in particular i conography and pageantry are shown to have been constitutive to nation al and imperial identity.