There are complex and interesting representational issues and interpretatio
nal practices involved in claiming to 'know past lives' and these have part
icular resonance in feminist terms. These ideas are examined in relation to
a particular case study, of the feminist writer and theorist Olive Schrein
er (1855-1920), although the discussion contributes to the 'women's history
and post-structuralism' debate by eschewing taking up an abstract 'positio
n' in favour of examining these ideas through a grounded historical example
. A range of representations of Schreiner is discussed, including a photogr
aph which her estranged husband contemporaneously had 'touched up' before s
ending it to some of her friends just after her death, and present-day repr
esentations of Schreiner in the emergent feminist canon of claimed knowledg
e about her. The ideas of mimesis and alterity are used both in relation to
photographic representation and also in relation to the use of metaphor to
stand for perceived facets of Schreiner's character. Representational issu
es are fundamental and ought not to be excised from feminist discussion; at
the same time, the past and its 'irreducible things that happened' must al
so be taken seriously.