‘Homeward Bound’: Periodicity, the Cape Colony's Literary Culture and the Cape Monthly Magazine

Abstract

This article engages with the current critical interest in imperial commodity and literary networks by using the Cape Monthly Magazine, a nineteenth-century literary periodical published in the Cape Colony, to explore the rhythms of serialization in a colonial context. Using an article published in the Magazine in 1861 titled ‘First Impressions: Homeward Bound’, I explore the interplay between colonial and imperial literary forms. The article describes the rhythms of temporal organization that were imposed upon the Cape by the regular arrival and departure of the mail steamers. The juxtaposition of the ebb and flow of tidal rhythms with the rhythms associated with periodical printing creates a platform from which to consider the development of the Cape Colony's literary culture. Whilst the Cape's geographical distance from the rest of the British Empire allowed it the space to cultivate its own unique literary identity, the regular deliveries of textual commodities from London created a tension between the desire to emulate established British practices and the ambition to innovate new, colonial ones.