Letter Writing as Storytelling

The Life of Martha Murray as Told in the Mission News Letter

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/18327

Keywords:

Martha Murray, Nyasaland Mission, Life Writing, Letters, Mission News Letter

Abstract

Utilising the growing interdisciplinary discourse between literary criticism and historiography, especially prevalent in the multiple genres of life writing, the letters of Martha Murray, the first single missionary in Nyasaland, are read as a story. By communicating using letters in the Mission News Letter, Martha Murray is an example of the powerful role that evangelical spirituality played in this young woman’s life and her readers. In reading these letters as a story, the elements of a narrative are identified, namely a protagonist, setting, plot, and antagonistic forces. The story told by these letters formed the imagination of the readers and informed them on the vocation of women and the realities of missional life. The powerful role of religion in self-identification and agency is affirmed within the bigger narrative of the late 19th-century and early 20th-century South African public.

References

Bowie, F, Kirkwood, D and Ardener, S (eds). 1994. Women and Missions: Past and Present. Anthropological and Historical Perceptions. Oxford: Berg.

Burke, P (ed). 2001. New Perspectives on Historical Writing. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Cronjé, J.M. 1981. Aan God die Dank. Geskiedenis van die Sending van die Ned. Geref. Kerk. Deel 2. Pretoria: N.G. Kerkboekhandel.

Dreyer, A. 1910. Historisch Album van De Nederduitsche Gereformeerde Kerk in Zuid Afrika. Kaapstad: Cape Times Beperkt.

Eyre, A. 2023. Women's Writing and Mission in the Nineteenth Century: Jane Eyre's Missionary Sisters. New York: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003332961

Huber, M.T. and Lutkehaus, M.C. 1999. Gendered Missions. Women and Men in Missionary Discourse and Practice. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.16332

Joubert, L. and Murray, I. 2020. Randfigure. Stemme van toe tot nou. Cape Town: Red Mouse Publication.

Murray, I. 2022. Andrew Murray. Letters to His Children. Exposé of a Vulnerable Father. Cape Town: Red Mouse Publication.

Pienaar, P. 2023. "The Missionary Women of the Huguenot Seminary: A Case Study in Vocational Formation through Education." PhD Dissertation: Stellenbosch University.

Smith, S and Watson, J. 2001. Reading Autobiography. A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816669851.001.0001

Stanley, L. 2015. "The Death of the Letter? Epistolary Intent, Letterness and the Many Ends of Letter Writing." Cultural Sociology 9(2): 240-255.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975515573267

Walton, H. 2015. Not Eden. Spiritual Life Writing for this World. London: SCM Press.

Mission News Letter, January 1895 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, March 1895 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, April 1895 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, June 1895 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, January 1896 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, February 1897 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, May 1897 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, January 1898 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, April 1898 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, July 1899 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, June 1900 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, February 1901 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, July 1902 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Mission News Letter, September 1903 [DRC Archive: Stellenbosch].

Downloads

Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Joubert, Lisel. 2025. “Letter Writing As Storytelling: The Life of Martha Murray As Told in the Mission News Letter ”. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, June, 17 pages. https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-4265/18327.

Issue

Section

Articles