Tropologiese Hoogliedmetafore en vroulike mistieke piëtisme in Suid-Afrikaanse pioniergemeenskappe, 1760–1860

The ego-focus of pioneer women on the South African frontier, 1760–1860, reflects distinct traits of mystical spirituality. The pioneer spirituality of women on the borders increasinglycame to expression in ego-texts with experiential inclinations. The leaning towards Jesuscentredmystical spirituality developed parallel to pietistic tendencies in Holland and Germany,and allegorical and tropological applications of the bridal metaphors in the Song of Songsformed a distinct element of female pietism on the frontier. Women believers in the interiorfavoured tropological applications of bridal metaphors in the Song of Songs. The popularity ofsuch tropological applications can firstly be attributed to the physical conditions under whichpioneer women found themselves. Secondly, the availability of German pietistic workscontributed towards the religious culture of mystical and individualistic readings of bridalmetaphors in the Song of Songs. Tropological readings of the Song of Songs’ bridal metaphorsare traced to the theology of Bernard of Clairvaux particularly and other pre-reformationalmystical sources.

Representing the Ideal American Family

Communities throughout the U.S. West erected monuments to white pioneer mothers in the late 1920s. While other western sculptors’ interest in frontier women soon faded, Avard Fairbanks continued to produce prominent public monuments to pioneer women and families for the next fifty years. Fairbanks’s pioneer monuments provide a valuable case study for examining the ways in which changing social norms influenced public monuments over the course of the twentieth century. Focusing on Avard Fairbanks’s fifty years of pioneer-themed monuments highlights the sculptor’s role in transforming idealized images of settler families from objects of purely regional memory into a national American family ideal.