DOCSLIB.ORG

Imagining the City in Zimbabwean Literature 1949 to 2009

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Imagining the City in Zimbabwean Literature 1949 to 2009 Imagining the City in Zimbabwean Literature 1949 to 2009 by Kizito Zhiradzago Muchemwa Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. Meg Samuelson Co-supervisor: Prof. Annie Gagiano December 2013 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. December 2013 ………………. …………………. Signature Date Copyright © 2013 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT My thesis is on the literary imagining of the city in Zimbabwean literature that emerges as a re-visioning and contestation of its colonial and postcolonial manifestations. Throughout the seven chapters of the thesis I conduct a close reading of literary texts engaged in literary (re)creations of the city. I focus on texts by selected authors from 1949 to 2009 in order to trace the key aspects of this city imagining and their historical situatedness. In the first chapter, I argue the case for the inclusions and exclusions that are evident. In this historical span, I read the Zimbabwean canon and the city that is figured in it as palimpsests in order to analyse (dis)connections. This theoretical frame brings out wider relationships and connections that emerge in the (re)writing of both the canon and city. I adopt approaches that emphasise how spaces and temporalities ‗overlap and interlace‘ to provoke new ways of thinking about the city and the construction of identity. I argue for the country-city connection as an important dynamic in the various (re)imaginings of the city. Space is politicized along lines of race, ethnicity, gender and class in regimes of politics and aesthetics of inclusion and exclusion that are refuted by the focal texts of the thesis. I analyse the fragmentation of rural and urban space in the literary texts and how country and city house politico-aesthetic regimes of domination, exclusion and marginalisation. Using tropes of the house, music and train, I analyse how connections in the city are imagined. These tropes are connected to the travel motif found in all the chapters of the thesis. Travel is in most of the texts offered as a form of escape from the country represented as a site of essentialism or nativism. Both settlers and nationalists, from different ideological positions, invest the land and the city with symbolic political and cultural values. Both figure the city as alien to the colonised, a figuration that is contested in most of the focal texts of the thesis. Travel from the country to the city through halfway houses is presented as a way of negotiating location in new spaces, finding new identities and contending with the multiple connections found in the city. The relentless (un)housing in Marechera‘s writing expresses a refusal to be bounded by aesthetic, nationalist and racial houses as they are constructed in the city. In Vera‘s fiction, travel – in multifarious directions and in a re-racing of the quest narrative in Lessing – becomes a critical search for a re-scripting of gender and woman‘s demand for a right to the city. The nomadism in Vera‘s fiction is re-configured in the portrayal of the marginalised as the parvenus and pariahs of the city in the fiction of Chinodya and Tagwira. In the chapter on Chikwava and Gappah, in the contexts of spatial iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za displacement and expansion, the nationalist nativist construction of self, city and nation comes under stress. I interrogate how ideologies of space shape politico-aesthetic regimes in both the country and the city throughout the different historical phases of the city. In this regard I adopt theoretical approaches that engage with questions of aesthetic equality as they relate to the contestation of spatial partitioning based on categories of race, gender and class. In city re-imaginings this re-claiming of aesthetic power to imagine the city is invoked and in all the texts it emerges as a reclaiming of the right to the city by the colonised, women, immigrants and all the marginalised. I adopt those approaches that lend themselves to the deconstruction of hegemonic figuration, disempowerment and silencing of the marginalised, especially women, in re-imagining the city and their identities in it. iv Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING My tesis se onderwerp is die literêre voorstellings van die stad in Zimbabwiese letterkunde wat ontstaan as ‗n herverbeelding van en teenvoeter vir beide koloniale en postkoloniale manifestasies. Regdeur die sewe hoofstukke van die tesis voer ek deurtastende interpretasies van literêre tekste aan, wat die stad op nuwe maniere uitbeeld. My fokus val op tekste deur geselekteerde skrywers van 1949 tot 2009 ten einde die sleutelelemente van hierdie proses van stadverbeelding en die historiese gesitueerdheid daarvan te ondersoek. In die eerste hoofstuk bied ek die argument aan betreffende die voor-die-hand liggende in- en uitsluitings van tekste. Deur hierdie historiese strekking lees ek die Zimbabwiese kanon en die stad wat daarin figureer as palimpseste, ten einde die (dis-)konneksies te kan analiseer. Hierdie teoretiese beraming belig die wyere verhoudings en verbindings wat na vore kom in die (her-) skrywe van beide die kanon en die stad. Ek gebruik benaderings wat benadruk hoe ruimtes en tydelikhede oormekaarvloei en saamvleg om sodoende nuwe maniere om oor die stad en oor identiteitskonstruksie te besin, aanmoedig. Ek argumenteer vir die stad-platteland konneksie as ‗n belangrike dinamika in die verskillende (her-)voorstellings van die stad. Ruimte word só verpolitiseer met betrekking tot ras, etnisiteit, gender en klas binne politieke regimes asook ‗n estetika van in- en uitsluiting wat deur die kern-tekste verwerp word. Ek analiseer verder die fragmentasie van landelike en stedelike ruimtes in die literêre tekste, en hoe die plattelandse en stedelike ruimtes tuistes bied aan polities-estetiese regimes van dominasie, uitsluiting en marginalisering. Die huis, musiek en die trein word gebruik as beelde om verbindings in die stad te ondersoek. Hierdie beelde sluit aan by die motif van die reis wat in al die hoofstukke manifesteer. Die reis word in die meeste tekste gesien as ‗n vorm van ontsnapping uit die platteland, wat voorgestel word as ‗n plek van essensie-voorskrywing en ingeborenheid. Beide intrekkers en nasionaliste, uit verskillende ideologiese vertrekpunte, bekleed die platteland of die stad met simboliese politieke en kulturele waardes. Beide verbeeld die stad as vreemd aan die gekoloniseerdes; ‗n uitbeelding wat verwerp word in die fokale tekste van die studie. Reis van die platteland na die stad deur halfweg-tuistes word aangebied as metodes van onderhandeling om plek te vind in nuwe ruimtes, nuwe identiteite te bekom en om te leer hoe om met die stedelike verbindings om te gaan. Die onverbiddelikke (ont-)tuisting in die werk van Marechera gee uitdrukking aan ‗n weiering om deur estetiese, nasionalistiese en rassiese behuising soos deur die stad omskryf en voorgeskryf, vasgevang te word. In die fiksie van Vera word reis – in telke rigtings en in die her-rassing van die soektog-motif in v Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Lessing – ‗n kritiese soeke na die herskrywing van gender en van die vrou se op-eis van die reg tot die stad. Die nomadisme in Vera se fiksie word ge-herkonfigureer in uitbeelding van gemarginaliseerdes as die parvenus en die uitgeworpenes van die stad in die fiksie van Chinodya en Tagwira. In die hoofstuk oor Chikwava en Gappah word die nasionalistiese ingeborenes se konstruering van die self, stad en nasie onder stremmimg geplaas in kontekste van ruimtelike verplasing en uitbreiding. Ek ondervra hoe ideologieë van spasie vorm gee aan polities-estetiese regimes in beide die platteland en die stad regdeur die verskillende historiese fases van die stad. In hierdie opsig maak ek gebruik van teoretiese benaderings wat betrokke is met vraagstukke van estetiese gelykheid met verwysing na kontestasies oor ruimtelike verdelings gebaseer op kategorieë van ras, gender en klas. In herverbeeldings van die stad word hierdie reklamering van die estetiese mag om die stad te verbeel, bygehaal in al die tekste as herklamering van die reg tot die stad deur gekoloniseerdes, vroue, immigrante en alle gemarginaliseerdes. Ek maak gebruik van benaderings wat hulself leen tot die dekonstruksie van hegemoniese verbeelding, ontmagtiging en die stilmaak van gemarginaliseerdes, veral vroue, in die herverbeelding van die stad en hul plek binne die stadsruimte. vi Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my parents; my children, Fadzai, Enoch, Makomborero, Ruramai, Paida and Zivanai; and my grandchildren, Gamuchirai, Natalie, Watifadza and Tafadzwa. vii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The scope of my thesis, covering many periods and geographical spaces, gives me opportunity to acknowledge how different people have contributed in various ways to the gestation of ideas that came into its shaping and gave me their support. I start with an acknowledgement of the contribution of the members of the Southern African Shifting Cities research group born out of the Volkswagen workshop, Negotiating Culture in the Context of Globalisation, at Saly, Senegal, 3-8 April 2006, for signalling possible directions in city research in the humanities. I wish to thank also the English Department, Stellenbosch University, for creating a vibrant and stimulating intellectual environment during my time of study. Their research seminars brought local and international scholars of high calibre who sharpened the intellectual skills of postgraduate students in the department and faculty.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Scofield
    THE SCO FIELD O DAMBUDZO MARECHERA THE DOPPELGÄNGER ISSUE 1.3 WINTER 2016 THE SCOFIELD OLUSEYE THE SCO FIELD 1.3 “Am I him or is he me or am I myself and is he himself?” DAMBUDZO MARECHERA,”THE WRITER’S GRAIN” “The thread I intend to follow in my delving into Marechera’s fiction is that of the doppelgänger or double which in these works operates in various ways to undermine the concept of the unified individual, and to provoke an insight into the wider implications or possibilities which lie within or through this decentered subject.” Ibeji CREON UPTON, BEYOND KNOWLEDGE: A READING OF DAMBUDZO MARECHERA DAMBUDZO MARECHERA THE DOPPELGÄNGER “I think I am the doppelgänger whom, until I appeared, African literature had not yet met.” DAMBUDZO MARECHERA IN AN INTERVIEW WITH FLORA VEIT-WILD ISSUE 1.3 WINTER 2016 PAGE 2 THE SCOFIELD TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Scofield Thayer 2 The Doppelgänger Is the One Who Disturbs: 26 Sculpture by Gaston Lachaise A Conversation with Flora Veit-Wild Interview by Kaitlyn Greenidge Ibeji 2 Painting by Oluseye Doubling Over and Over Again: 32 A Brief Literary History of the Doppelgänger Table of Contents 3 Essay by Jack Hanson Multitudes 7 William Wilson 36 Letter from the Editor by Tyler Malone and Taylor Fiction by Edgar Allan Poe Malone Untitled 48 Dambudzo Marechera Bibliography 9 Mezzotint by Majla Zeneli List of Works by Dambudzo Marechera Beyond “Beyond Knowledge”: 49 Seated Couple 9 Fragments from a Thesis Sculpture by Unknown Bricolage by Creon Upton & Geoff Downton Dambudzo Marechera Ports of
    [Show full text]
  • University of Cape Town
    The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University REPRESENTATIONS OF POST-2000 DISPLACEMENT IN ZIMBABWEAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE IVY SHUTU MUSEKIWA SHTIVY001 A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Language, Literature and Modernity. Town Cape of Faculty of Humanities UniversityUniversity of Cape Town September 2012 DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: Town Cape of University ABSTRACT This study examines literature by Zimbabwean women that explores evictions and migrations of people from 2000 to 2009 when the crisis subsided with the enactment of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). It examines women‘s fiction on the impact of the land reform and Operation Murambatsvina with regard to the displacements and the consequent pain and trauma these programmes brought about. I examine stories by both black and white Zimbabwean female writers and argue that these stories show that the programmes caused physical, emotional, social and economic displacement.
    [Show full text]
  • WELKOM Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association
    ACLA 2017 ACLA WELKOM Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association ACLA 2017 | Utrecht University TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome and Acknowledgments ...............................................................................................4 Welcome from Utrecht Mayor’s Office .....................................................................................6 General Information ................................................................................................................... 7 Conference Schedule ................................................................................................................. 14 Biographies of Keynote Speakers ............................................................................................ 18 Film Screening, Video Installation and VR Poetry ............................................................... 19 Pre-Conference Workshops ...................................................................................................... 21 Stream Listings ..........................................................................................................................26 Seminars in Detail (Stream A, B, C, and Split Stream) ........................................................42 Index......................................................................................................................................... 228 CFP ACLA 2018 Announcement ...........................................................................................253 Maps
    [Show full text]
  • Blood on the Page
    Blood on the Page Blood on the Page: Interviews with African Authors writing about HIV/AIDS By Lizzy Attree Blood on the Page: Interviews with African Authors writing about HIV/AIDS, by Lizzy Attree This book first published 2010 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2010 by Lizzy Attree All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-2077-6, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2077-6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Interview with Phaswane Mpe................................................................... 21 Interview with Sindiwe Magona................................................................ 33 Interview with Kgafela oa Magogodi ........................................................ 77 Interview with Alexander Kanengoni........................................................ 99 Interview with Vivienne Kernohan aka Violet Kala................................ 111 Interview with Charles Mungoshi ..........................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Discourses of Poverty in Literature: Assessing Representations of Indigence in Post-Colonial Texts from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe
    Discourses of Poverty in Literature: Assessing representations of indigence in post-colonial texts from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe By PHENYO BUTALE Thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. Tina Steiner Co-supervisor: Prof. Annie Gagiano March 2015 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any other university for a degree. Signature............................................... Date: 10th October 2014 Copyright © 2015 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved i Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT This thesis undertakes a comparative reading of post-colonial literature written in English in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to bring into focus the similarities and differences between fictional representations of poverty in these three countries. The thesis explores the unique way in which literature may contribute to the better understanding of poverty, a field that has hitherto been largely dominated by scholarship that relies on quantitative analysis as opposed to qualitative approaches. The thesis seeks to use examples from selected texts to illustrate that (as many social scientists have argued before) literature provides insights into the ‘lived realities’ of the poor and that with its vividly imagined specificities it illuminates the broad generalisations about poverty established in other (data-gathering) disciplines. Selected texts from the three countries destabilise the usual categories of gender, race and class which are often utilised in quantitative studies of poverty and by so doing show that experiences of poverty cut across and intersect all of these spheres and the experiences differ from one person to another regardless of which category they may fall within.
    [Show full text]
  • Juz021001007.Pdf
    The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. Zambezia (1994), XXI (i). BOOK REVIEWS Southern Africa After Apartheid: Regional Integration and External Resources Edited by B. Oden. Uppsala, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1993, 271 pp., ISBN 97-7106-332-3, Z$27. This volume consists of a collection of papers presented anonymously in a seminar organized by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies in May 1992. The contributors are in the main a group of academics and some public officials from the Scandinavian countries and Southern Africa (Botswana and South Africa). The volume is divided into four main areas, viz., theory oriented, issue oriented, organization oriented and external resource oriented perspectives. Many of the chapters summarize existing literature (often without references) rather than contribute new data or new perspectives. Of academic interest are the theory oriented perspectives, the first of which summarizes the available literature on the theories of regional integration, namely the classical approach, the developmental approach and the neo-functional approach. The relevance of these theories to Southern Africa is critically evaluated and this evaluation seems to agree with the available literature concluding that none of the above theories suits the conditions in Southern Africa. The reasons for this conclusion lie in the fact that the circumstances in the sub-region differ within and between countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering the Short Stories of Yvonne
    Jessica Murray Remembering the short stories of Jessica Murray is a senior lecturer in Yvonne Vera: A postcolonial and English Studies at the University of South Africa, Pretoria. She completed her feminist reading of Why Don’t You Ph.D at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York, United Kingdom. Carve Other Animals? E-mail: [email protected] Remembering the short stories of Yvonne Vera: A postcolonial and feminist reading The Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera is one of the most important writers to emerge from the African continent over the last two decades. Although she has received widespread critical acclaim as well as academic scrutiny, analyses of her work have mostly focused on her novels. This article attempts to redress this scholarly imbalance by offering a close textual analysis of Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals? through a critical lens of postcolonial and feminist theory. In these stories Vera articulates the internal thoughts of her characters in order to explore the way that oppressed people negotiate the fact of their oppression. It is particularly the female characters’ reflections that reveal the complexity of the position occupied by colonised women and the sophistication of their attempts to address the layered marginalisation to which they are subjected. Vera shows that, for them, an unproblematic participation in the nationalist movement for liberating Zimbabwe from colonial oppression is simply not an option. The article explores the specifically gendered expectations and obstacles that shape the female characters’ struggles in the Zimbabwean context. Key words: Feminism, marginalisation, national liberation, postcolonial, Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean writing.
    [Show full text]
  • Vindicating Dambudzo Marechera: Features of Cultic Remembering Anna-Leena TOIVANEN University of Eastern Finland, Finland
    Nordic Journal of African Studies 22(4): 256–273 (2013) Vindicating Dambudzo Marechera: Features of Cultic Remembering Anna-Leena TOIVANEN University of Eastern Finland, Finland ABSTRACT The article approaches the ongoing cultic phenomenon around the Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera from the viewpoint of cultic remembrance. The diverse text corpus concerned with the writer is marked by nuances of regret and loss. These affects reveal a sense of guilt that envelops the author‘s memory, as well as a willingness to compensate the past wrongdoings to which Marechera is seen to become subjected. The sadness around Marechera‘s memory seems to spring from the conception that Marechera was misunderstood during his lifetime. Currently, however, he is seen to have been ahead of his time, a postcolonial writer avant la lettre , and a talent wasted in a hostile environment. What adds to Marechera‘s “tragedy” is that he is interpreted to have predicted the Zimbabwe crisis. Today, Marechera is seen to haunt the world of the living in a ghostly manner, which indicates a melancholic unwillingness to accept the writer‘s loss. Keywords : authorial image, cult, cultural memory, Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwe 1. INTRODUCTION Representations of the life story of the Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera (1952–1987) are shaded by sadness. He died at the age of 35, or “in his prime”, as it is frequently expressed in texts dealing with his legacy. The works 1 of the author, repeatedly described as controversial, had a polarized reception: he was both celebrated as an award-winning literary genius and condemned for betraying his people and had one of his novels banned in Zimbabwe.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cat in the House: Marechera Reads Hemingway
    Postcolonial Text, Vol 11, No 2 (2016) The Cat in the House: Marechera Reads Hemingway Alan Ramón Ward University of British Columbia As early critics have noted with some disapproval, Dambudzo Marechera’s style in The House of Hunger seems more informed by the individualistic, self-tortured narratives of modern western writing than an organically African tradition. Anna-Leena Toivanen remarks that “Marechera was accused of being too European” in his aesthetic (“Writer” 184), and that he was “too westernized and individualistic, lacking ‘serious commitment’ to the anti-colonial struggle” (“Receiving” 16). Juliet Okonkwo called him “decadent” (91); Mbulelo Mzamane accused him of cynicism and disillusionment (224); Dan Wylie criticized his focus on an “individual and rampantly esoteric sensibility” (60). Thankfully, the suggestion that Marechera is somehow anti-African has been variously and convincingly discredited (see, for instance, Toivanen, “Writer”; Pattison). Yet it must not be forgotten that Marechera counts European writers among his strongest literary influences. Ernest Hemingway’s name appears explicitly in most of Marechera’s collections. The mention is usually tiny and inconsequential, as in Scrapiron Blues: “Hemingway was a writer who shot himself in the head (dead) with a very big, a very ugly rifle” (244); or characteristically cryptic, as in Black Sunlight: “the big and Hemingway fish that was the mote in his eye” (74). And yet Hemingway’s brief mention in Mindblast, in which Marechera describes himself as following “the myth of the hard-drinking novelist, trying to out-Hemingway Ernest Hemingway in seedy whorehouse bars in Zimbabwe” (123), suggests to me the worthwhile exploration of a notional correspondence that I always felt connected Marechera’s work with Hemingway’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Expressions of Southern African Nationalism(S): Convergences, Divergences, and Reconciliations in South Africa and Zimbabwe
    POPULAR EXPRESSIONS OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN NATIONALISM(S): CONVERGENCES, DIVERGENCES, AND RECONCILIATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE By Blessing Shingirirai Mavima A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of African American and African Studies – Doctor of Philosophy 2019 ABSTRACT POPULAR EXPRESSIONS OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN NATIONALISM(S): CONVERGENCES, DIVERGENCES, AND RECONCILIATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE By Blessing Shingirirai Mavima Popular Expressions of Pan-Africanism and Southern African Nationalism(s): Convergences, Divergences, and Reconciliations in South Africa and Zimbabwe is a dissertation study that traces the transformations, reveals the tensions, and critically analyzes diverging and converging trajectories of different manifestations of African nationalism, including ethnic nationalism, state nationalism, and Pan-Africanism using contemporary South Africa and Zimbabwe as sites of analyses. Focusing on the metropolitan provinces of Gauteng and Harare respectively, I use the study to interrogate how popular expressions of African nationalism have emerged and evolved in the neighboring nations during their anti-colonial/anti-apartheid struggles throughout the 20 th century, and how they exist today. Presenting a thesis that I call nationalisms from below, the research study reveals how these manifestations of nationalism are imagined, practiced, and represente d by the initiatives and actions of different members of the civil society including artists, activists, laborers, and migrants in the two countries’ contemporary politics and society. My findings lead to a nuanced determination of the factors that influence the intersections, divergences, and convergences of what I refer to in the study as Africa’s tripartite nationalist expressions and identities—ethnicism, African Nationalism, and Pan- Africanism.
    [Show full text]
  • Forms of Hypocrisy in the Writings of Dambudzo Marechera
    FORMS OF HYPOCRISY IN THE WRITINGS OF DAMBUDZO MARECHERA by \ PAULS JONAH ZINAKA Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English at the UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH Co-supervised by Dr A. Gagiano and Dr S. Nuttall December 1999 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university for a degree. Signature: _.fi2~ __________ Date: _~~!.!.:~'L __ Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract. Perceiving every established notion as inherently entrapping, Dambudzo Marechera rejects and strives to elude all manner of categorisation which tends to submerge one's individuality. His fundamental conviction is that only those whose motive is to exercise power over other human beings insist on fixed notions such a~ nation, race, culture, religion and ideology. This is because such self-seekers realise that hur:nan beings tend to be more susceptible to manipulation if they identify themselves with established categories or discourses. Given the trend in African writing during the anti-colonial period to identify with nationalist discourse, Marechera cuts the figure of a literary funambulist: not only does he refuse to write for a specific nation or race, but he also dismisses fixed notions of nation and race as spurious Machiavellian fabrications aimed at fossilising people's minds for purposes of easier regimentation. Predictably, Marechera invokes the wrath of nationalist critics who see in him a self-deprecating African reactionary or a mere Uncle Tom who affects European avant-gardism.
    [Show full text]
  • Ben Okri, Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera
    BOEHMER Makeup 3/22/05 2:55 PM Page 140 John's G5:Users:john:Public:John's Mac: John's Job 8 The nation as metaphor: Ben Okri, Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera metaphors are the public history of nations (with apologies to Balzac). (Timothy Brennan, ‘The National Longing for Form’)1 Unreal nation The first, post-1945 phase of anti-colonial nationalism in Africa, as in other colonised regions, was distinguished by literal belief structures: a strong, teleo- logical faith in the actual existence of the nation as ‘people’, and the sense that history essentially unfolded as a process of that nation’s coming-into-being. There was a belief, too, in Africa as in South Asia, as in the Caribbean, that the distinctive forms of modernity, in this case in particular the sovereign state, could be incorporated, indigenised, repatriated.2 These may seem at face value rather obvious statements to make about nationalism, which broadly demands some form of belief in the national entity, and acts of loyalty expressed towards it. Yet the obviousness here is part of the point. In post-independence Africa, as in other former colonies, the nation as a group defined by particular observ- able traits and/or a distinctive, ascertainable history, was for some time believed to have a geopolitical, historical and even spiritual existence. Crucially, it was also seen to provide a means through which identities detached from European stereotypes, and distinctive, local (in this case African) modernities might be generated. However, in the decades since independence, as the coherence of the nation – whether as geophysical space, symbolic leadership or unitary people – has been questioned in various ways, especially perhaps in Africa, national self- awareness in fiction, if not the concept of the nation itself, has undergone sig- nificant shifts and revisions.
    [Show full text]