Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Undergraduate teaching

• U65090 Publishing and Book History: Theories and Approaches (module leader)
• U65099 Publishing Major Project and U65090 Major Interdisciplinary Project (module leader)

Postgraduate teaching

• Subject Coordinator of the MA in Publishing Studies (distance learning)
• P65029 The History and Culture of Publishing (module leader)
• P65034 Publishing Major Project (module leader)
• P65066 Culture of Publishing (module leader, distance learning programme)
• P65065 Independent Study (module leader, distance learning programme)

Books

• Davis C, Johnson D, Ed., The Book in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan UK (2015)
  ISBN: 978-1-349-48644-1 eISBN: 978-1-137-40162-5
  Abstract This volume presents new research and critical debates in African book history, and brings together a range of disciplinary perspectives by leading scholars in the subject. It includes case studies from across Africa, ranging from third-century manuscript traditions to twenty-first century internet communications.Website 

Journal articles

• Davis C, Dick A, Le Roux E, 'Introduction: Print Culture in Southern Africa'
  Journal of Southern African Studies 44 (3) (2018) pp.377-381
  ISSN: 0305-7070 eISSN: 1465-3893
  Website 
• Caroline Davis, 'A Question of Power: Bessie Head and her Publishers'
  Journal of Southern African Studies 44 (3) (2018) pp.491-506
  ISSN: 0305-7070 eISSN: 1465-3893
  Abstract This article examines Bessie Head’s turbulent relationships with her publishers and literary agents in London and New York, focusing on the publication of A Question of Power in 1973. It traces her business negotiations carried out from Serowe in Botswana and the difficulties she faced in getting the manuscript accepted, before it was eventually taken on by Heinemann Educational, Davis-Poynter and Pantheon Books. Based on new archival records, the article analyses the impact of the publishers’ interventions in the text and paratexts of the novel, and it assesses her contracts with these publishers as well as her difficulties in obtaining royalties or remuneration. While her publishers and biographer have attributed her battles with the literary establishment to her volatile nature or to mental illness, this article draws attention instead to the difficulties that Head faced in forging a literary career.Website 
• Davis C, 'Publishing anti-apartheid literature: Athol Fugard's Statements plays'
  Journal of Commonwealth Literature 48 (1) (2013) pp.113-129
  ISSN: 0021-9894
  Abstract This article addresses the creation of Athol Fugard's plays not as performances or as texts, but as material objects, and examines how the meaning and value of his plays were constructed through the interventions of his publisher. The paper draws attention to the sharp distinction in the way that Fugard's performances and published plays have been received, most acutely with respect to the plays Sizwe Bansi is Dead, The Island and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. These plays directly addressed and attacked apartheid legislation and enforcement. In performance in South Africa between 1972-1973 they were regarded as radical and subversive by the South African authorities as well as by audiences and critics. The Oxford University Press edition of this trilogy, Statements: Three Plays (1974), was by contrast packaged as a literary and commercial product that circulated free from censorship. This essay explores the reasons for this dichotomy through a detailed author/publisher case study of the publication history of the plays. It analyses the means by which Fugard was re-branded as an "Oxford author" through the book's publication in the Oxford Paperback Series, and assesses the impact of this brand on the reception of Fugard's plays. The published book was also a more individualistic creative product than the performances of the plays: the Press applied a conventional model of authorship which served to defuse the radical, interracial partnership between Fugard and his co-writers Winston Ntshona and John Kani. Likewise, the political content was neutralized as the plays were promoted as allegorical literary works of universal significance. By these means, it is argued, Fugard was successfully incorporated into the literary establishment in the UK, the USA and South Africa under apartheid.Website 
• Davis C, 'Publishing Wole Soyinka: Oxford University Press and the creation of "Africa's own William Shakespeare"'
  Journal of Postcolonial Writing 48 (4) (2012) pp.344-358
  ISSN: 1744-9855
  Abstract This article considers the impact of Wole Soyinka's adoption of Oxford University Press (OUP) as his first international publisher. Formerly one of the main producers of school books for "native education" in Africa, OUP in the immediate post-independence period continued to operate under colonial modes of publishing. This study considers how OUP dealt with the political critique of Soyinka's early plays, several of which were regarded in performance as radical and subversive in their critical engagement with Nigerian politics and history. Using previously unexamined archival sources, it concentrates on the negotiations surrounding each stage of the publishing process. It assesses how Soyinka's texts were filtered through OUP's publishing apparatus and how the paratextual elements created by the publisher - within the book and beyond - influenced the reception of his works. The article concludes that the publisher's interventions had a profound impact on the construction of the literary identity of Soyinka, and on the creation of his persona as "Africa's own William Shakespeare".Website 
• Davis C, 'Histories of publishing under apartheid: Oxford University Press in South Africa'
  Journal of Southern African Studies 37 (1) (2011) pp.79-98
  ISSN: 0305-7070 eISSN: 1465-3893
  Abstract This history of Oxford University Press (OUP) in South Africa draws on archival records and oral testimonies. It first considers OUP's rationale and vision for its work in pre-war South Africa. This is followed by a discussion of the development of the branch's anti-apartheid general and academic lists alongside its educational list from the late 1940s to the 1960s, reflecting on the dilemmas and contradictions entailed in this dual policy. It then reviews the radical change of management approach towards South Africa in 1970 and the ensuing crisis in the branch and conflicts in London and Oxford, as the branch's liberal position was sacrificed in order to maintain its commercial position in the country. The article contends that OUP in the UK as well as Cape Town increasingly depended on profits from the publication of Bantu Education approved texts, which led to an avoidance of the publication of 'controversial' or anti-apartheid texts. It reviews how OUP represented its work in South Africa in narratives and histories of publishing that veiled the company's commercial interests while emphasising its cultural and educational mission.Website 

Book chapters

• Davis C, 'The Book, British Imperialism and Post-Imperialism' in Andrew Nash, Claire Squires and Ian Willison (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain. Volume 7, 1914-, Cambridge University Press (2019)
  
• Davis C, 'Playing the Game? The Publication of Oswald Mtshali' in Dalleo R (ed.), Bourdieu and Postcolonial Studies, Liverpool University Press (2016)
  ISBN: 978-1-781-38296-7
  Abstract Chapter 6Website 
• Davis C, 'Creating a Book Empire: Longmans in Africa' in The Book in Africa. Critical Debates, Palgrave Macmillan UK (2015)
  ISBN: 978-1-349-48644-1 eISBN: 978-1-137-40162-5
  Abstract The impact of the British publisher in Africa is a matter of some contention. Publishers’ memoirs, oral histories and company histories have tended to narrate their history in the continent as a cultural mission, vital to the education and enlightenment of Africa.1 Competing interpretations have been voiced by a number of African publishers and postcolonial scholars, who criticise British publishers as agents of neocolonialism or cultural imperialism that served to prevent the growth of an indigenous publishing industry.2 This chapter aims to analyse Longmans’ contribution to African print culture, and its historical legacy in the continent in the context of these debates.Website 

Reviews

• Davis C, review of Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace, in Review of English Studies 61 (2010) pp.492-494ISSN: 0034-6551 eISSN: 1471-6968
  Website 

Membership of professional bodies

• Member of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP)
• Oxford Brookes University Representative, The Association of Publishing Eduction (APE)
• Member of the UK Africa Studies Association (ASAUK)

Conferences

Conference organisation

• Co-organiser of 'The Academic Book in the South', British Library, March 2016.
• Organiser of Print Culture and the Nation one-day conference, Oxford Brookes University, March 2015.
• Organiser of the colloquium Print Networks in Africa, Oxford Brookes University, 4 September 2014.
• Convenor of the ‘History of the Book in Africa’ panels, Africa Studies Association UK, Sussex University, September 2014.
• Co-organiser of The Book in Africa symposium, Institute of English Studies, University of London, October 2012.

Conference papers

• ‘Segregating Books and Readers: Language, Publishing and Education in South Africa, 1935-1965’, SHARP 2016, Paris (July 2016).
• ‘Macmillan’s Strategy in Africa in the 20th Century’, The House of Macmillan Symposium, University of Reading, June 2016.
• ‘A Question of Power: The Publication of Bessie Head’, Invited speaker at the ‘Annual Seminar in Print Culture’, University of Pretoria, May 2016.
• ‘Power, Politics and Postcolonial Publishing in Africa’, Invited speaker at’ The Politics of Academic Publishing’, Royal Society, March 2016.
• 'Canonising African Writers for the Global Marketplace: The Publication of Oswald Mtshali’s Sounds of a Cowhide Drum',Writing (for) the Market conference, University of Munich, June 2015.
• Keynote address, Print Culture and Colonialisation conference, Cape Town University, 28-29 May 2015.
• 'Publishing Oswald Mtshali', Africa Studies Association UK 2014, University of Sussex, September 2014.
• ‘Creating a Book Empire: Longmans in Africa, 1933-1957’, Print Networks in Africa, September 2014.
• 'Segregating readers: The Book Policies of the Department of Education in Pretoria, 1935-1965', Pretoria In/Imprint Conference, University of Pretoria, May 2014.
• 'Erasing the Record: Longmans in South Africa 1910-1994', Seminars in Book History Series, University of Pretoria, May 2014.
• 'Oxford University Press and the Publication of Oswald Mtshali's Sounds of a Cowhide Drum', Print, Publishing and Cultural Production in South Africa conference, University of Pretoria, May 2013.
• 'Progressing Publishing Studies: Challenges and Issues', Progressing Book History and Publishing Studies as Disciplines workshop, Oxford Brookes University, May 2013.
• 'The Retreat from Liberal Publishing: Oxford University Press in South Africa under Apartheid.' SHARP conference, Washington, July 2011.
• 'Publishing Wole Soyinka', Colloquium on 'The Postcolonial Book', Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, March 2011.
• 'Publishing Athol Fugard's Statements Plays', SHARP conference, Toronto, July 2009.