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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Zimbabwean fiction'
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1
Berndt, Katrin. "Female identity in contemporary Zimbabwean fiction /." Bayreuth : Thielmann & Breitinger, 2005. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=013041976&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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Magosvongwe, Ruby. "Land and identity in Zimbabwean fiction writings in English from 2000 to 2010 critical analysis." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9292.
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Includes bibliographical references.The major aim of this study is to analyse how Zimbabwean literary voices across the racial divide explore the land-identity conundrum that is hotly contested in the aftermath of Zimbabwe's post-2000 land occupations and other redistribution processes. It aims to interrogate how the selected fictional narratives depict both long-held views and emerging perspectives on Zimbabwe's land question. Further, the study examines the land realities that the writers depict with a view to promoting national dialogue. The latter aims to promote greater social cohesion, peace and oneness that are critical for more sustainable human development in post-independence Zimbabwe.
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Eppel, Ruth. "The limitations and possiblilites of identity and form in selected recent memoirs and novels by white, female Zimbabwean writers : Alexandra Fuller, Lauren Liebenberg." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001985.
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This study examines selected works by four white female Zimbabwean writers: Alexandra Fuller, Lauren Liebenberg, Bryony Rheam and Lauren St John, in light of the controversy over the spate of white memoirs which followed the violent confiscation of white farms in Zimbabwe from 2000 onwards. The controversy hinges on the notion that white memoir writers exploit the perceived victimhood of white Zimbabweans in the international sphere, and nostalgically recall a time of belonging – as children in Rhodesia – which fails to address the fraught colonial history which is directly related to the current political climate of the country. I argue that such critiques are too generalised, and I regard the selected texts as primarily critical of the values and lifestyles of white Rhodesians/Zimbabweans. The texts I have selected include a range of autobiographical and fictional writing, or memoirs and pseudo-memoirs, and I focus on form as a medium enabling an exploration of identity. The ways in which these authors conform to and adapt particular narratives of becoming is examined in each chapter, with a particular focus on the transition from innocence to experience, the autobiography, and the Bildungsroman. Gender is a recurring point of interest: in each case the female selves/protagonists are situated in terms of the family, which, in reflecting social values, is a key site of conflict. In regard to trends in white African writing, I explore the white African (farm) childhood memoir and the confessional mode. Ultimately I maintain that while the texts may be classified as white writing, as they are fundamentally concerned with white identity, and therefore evince certain limitations of perspective and form, including clichéd tendencies, all the writers interrogate white identity and the fictional texts more self-reflexively deconstruct tropes of white writing.
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Chihota, Clement. "Towards Marxist stylistics: incorporating elements of critical discourse analysis into Althusserian Marxist criticism in the interpretation of selected Zimbabwean fiction." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13117.
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Includes bibliographical references.The thesis - which locates itself at the interface between linguistic and literary studies - explores the possibility of developing a ‘Marxist- stylistic’ method of text interpretation, which primarily proceeds from Althusserian Marxist Criticism, but which also incorporates salient elements of Critical Discourse Analysis. In construction of the method, the thesis first investigates the need for Althusserian Marxist criticism to be mediated, and more specifically, the areas in which this mediation is required. The thesis then crosses over to the field of Critical Discourse Analysis where it identifies relevant theoretical and methodological resources that are capable of mediating the ‘gaps’ identified in Althusserian Marxist criticism. The construction of the Marxist stylistic method is then effected through the transfer of germane theoretical and methodological resources from Critical Discourse Analysis to Althusserian Marxist criticism. The distinctive properties of the emergent Marxist-stylistic method are delineated before the method is practically applied to the interpretation of at least four fictional texts – all written and set in Zimbabwe. The key outcome of the thesis is that a distinctive method of text interpretation, which meaningfully separates itself from Althusserian Marxist criticism, on the one hand, and Critical Discourse Analysis, on the other, emerges. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the application of the method and makes some suggestions for further research and development in the area herein labelled as ‘Marxist stylistics.’
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Primorac, Ranka. "Displacement, identity and fictional formation in selected recent Zimbabwean novels." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.271213.
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Muwati, Itai. "Interface of history and fiction : the Zimbabwean liberation war novel." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18686.
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The research examines the interface of history and fiction. It predominantly focuses on historical fiction on the Zimbabwean liberation war written in Shona, Ndebele and English and published after the attainment of political independence in 1980. Historical fiction on the liberation war is both biographical and autobiographical. Consequently, the study comes to the conclusion that historical fiction is a veritable stakeholder in the history issue in Zimbabwe. It becomes another type or source of history that cannot be papered over when dealing with the nation’s history. In a nation where liberation war history is not only taken seriously, but is also a vigorously contested terrain, historical fiction becomes part of those discursive contestations, particularly on nation and nationalism. It is in this regard that the study problematises the interface of history and fiction by reasoning that historical fiction published in the early 1980s largely advances a state-centered perspective which views history, nation and nationalism in positive terms. This discourse uses history in order to argue for a single nation that derives its identity from the heroic and symbolic guerrilla characters. Nationalism is exclusively presented as humanising and as being the sole legitimate political brand capable of leading the nation. On the other hand, historical fiction written in English and published in the late 1980s onwards represents alternative historical truths that contest nationalism and debunk official definitions of nation. This discourse leads to the pluralisation of perspectives on nation and nationalism. The focus on historical fiction published in three languages used in Zimbabwe is a conscious attempt to transcend ethnicity in critical scholarship. Discussing novels in Shona, Ndebele and English, which are the three main languages in Zimbabwe, makes it possible for the study to draw reasoned conclusions on the bearing of time, language, region and background among others on historical representation. This undertaking brings to the fore how literature responding to similar historical processes appears moderately conjunctive and principally disjunctive. Correspondingly, it also shows various trends in the development of liberation war fiction in Zimbabwe.African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
7
Muganiwa, Josephine. "Shifting identities: representations of Shona women in selected Zimbabwean fiction." Thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26875.
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Bibliography: leaves 215-230This thesis uses a postcolonial framework to analyse the construction and representation of identities of Shona women in selected black and white Zimbabwean-authored fiction in English published between 1890 and 2015. The study traces meanings associated with Shona women’s identities as ascribed by dominant powers in every epoch to create narratives that reflect the power dynamics. The thesis argues that identities are complex, characterized by various intersections such as race, gender, class and ethnicity. Shona women have to negotiate their identities in various circumstances resulting in shifting multiple identities. The thesis focuses on how such identities are represented in the selected texts. Findings reveal that the colonial project sought to write the Shona women out of existence, and when they appeared negative images of dirt, slothfulness and immorality were ascribed to them. These images continued after independence to justify male dominance of women. However, the lived experience of women shows they have agency and tend to shift identities in relation to specific circumstances. Shona women’s identities are dynamic and multifarious as they aim at relevance in their socioeconomic and political circumstances. Representations of Shona women’s identities are therefore influenced by the aim of the one representing them. All representations are therefore arbitrary and must be interrogated in order to deconstruct meaning and understand the power dynamics at play. The works analysed are Olive Schreiner’s Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897), Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing (1950), Yvonne Vera’s Nehanda (1993), Cythia Marangwanda’s Shards (2014), Valerie Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope (2006), Violet Masilo’s The African Tea Cosy (2010), Eric Harrison’s Jambanja (2006), Dangarembgwa’s The Book of Not (2006), Christopher Mlalazi’s Running with Mother (2012) and Brian Chikwava’s Harare North (2009).
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)
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Gudhlanga, Enna Sukutai. "Gender and land ownership in Zimbabwean literature : a critical appraisal in selected Shona fiction." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/24806.
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The study has been prompted by the gap that exists regarding gender and land in Zimbabwean fiction. The study therefore seeks to interrogate the gender and land ownership discourse in Shona fiction in relation to the current conflict of access to land by race, class and gender. The study therefore examines the following fictional works; Feso (1956), Dzasukwa-Mwana-Asina-Hembe (1967), Pafunge (1972), Kuridza Ngoma Nedemo (1985), Vavariro (1990) and Sekai Minda Tave Nayo (2005). Of significance is the fact that the selected fictional works traverse the different historical periods that Zimbabwe as a nation has evolved through. Apart from analysing the selected fictional works, the study also collected data through open-ended interviews and questionnaires to triangulate findings from the fictional works. The selected fictional writers present the different experiences of black Zimbabweans through land loss and the strategies taken by the indigenous people in trying to regain their lost heritage, the land. The exegesis of the selected fictional works is guided by Afro-centred perspectives of Africana Womanism and Afrocentricity. Findings from most of the selected fictional works reveals the selective exclusion of blacks, both male and female, from accessing land and other vital resources from the colonial right up to post-independence periods in Zimbabwe. The study observes that Shona traditional culture accorded both genders the requisite space in terms of land ownership in the pre-colonial period. The study also establishes that colonialism through its numerous legislations stripped black men and women of the fertile land which they formerly collectively owned. The study also establishes that disillusioned black men and women worked extremely hard to regain their lost land as reflected in the unsanctioned land grabs as well as the government sanctioned Fast Track Land Reform Programme. Recommendations for future research include the expansion of such research to include works of fiction in other languages as well as different genres. Future land policies stand to benefit from the inclusion of women in decision making since women the world over have been confirmed as workers of the land. This is likely to deal with the gender divide regarding land ownership patterns both within and outside Zimbabwe.African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
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Saneliso, Thambo. "Mobilities, Migration and Identities in Selected Zimbabwean Fictional Narratives." Diss., 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11602/1156.
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MA (English)Department of English
This study examines the representation of the Zimbabwean migrant experiences in both regional and international migrations. It utilizes narratives that highlight the experiences of the Zimbabweans who migrate thereby exploring issues of mobility and identity. These narratives are Harare North (2010), An Elegy for Easterly (2010), Zebra Crossing (2013), We Need New Names (2014) and The Maestro, The Magistrate and The Mathematician (2014). These narratives have been utilized in the study to argue that migrants encounter traumatic experiences as they cross either the regional or international spaces they move to in search of better economic prospects. It further explores the kinds of trauma that they are subjected to, ranging from racism, the threat and reality of xenophobic attacks, the intricacy of negotiating an existence and a livelihood in these new spaces, searching for employment, to mention a few. The study argues that the migration experience has a catastrophic effect on the migrants’ psychological state, represented as partially being caused by the realization that the host country presents its own set of challenges and is also hostile, a different reality from the preconceived romanticized view of the countries they migrate to. The study argues that the selected novels foreground the inhospitable nature of the Zimbabwean post-2000 political instabilities and the socio-economic meltdown as fostering the forced trans-migrations of Zimbabweans in an effort to escape poverty and political challenges.
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Manase, Irikidzayi. "The mapping of urban spaces and identities in current Zimbabwean and South African fiction." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/3428.
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The dissertation focuses on the mapping of the southern African urban spaces and how it is linked to the urban dwellers' constitution of their identities, agency and subversion of the obtaining bleak and hegemonic conditions as represented in current fiction set in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Chapter 1 of the dissertation gives an overview of the social and historical developments characterising the construction of the southern African city from the colonial up to the current global city. The subordinate and marginal identities inscribed upon the Southern Africans as well as early forms of agency and subversion of the Western social, political and economic hegemony that has defined the city through out history will be looked at. Michael de Certeau's (1993) ideas showing the hegemonic
Western socio-economic agenda's creation of ordinary urban dwellers' invisibility and fragmentation, which they later subvert by renaming and remapping the alienating urban spaces of New York to improve their own lives, will be taken into consideration in this chapter's definition of the construction of the city and urban identities. In Chapter 2, the representation of the southern African urban spaces' cartography in the fiction is discussed. The characteristic spaces ranging from the socially and morally decayed inner-city, the well-built postmodern and elite Central
Business District, the affluent low-density suburbs and the far-away impoverished highdensity suburbs will be explored. The discussion attempts a complex unpacking of linkages between the mapping of Harare and Johannesburg with the hegemonic western social and economic agenda as well as the current urban dwellers' state of individual and
psychological fragmentation. Chapter 3 examines the way in which the current southern African urban social dislocation is represented in the fiction. The complexity of the urban dislocation signified by the prevalence of violence, xenophobia and HIV/AIDS is discussed. There is also a dialectical analysis ofhow the depicted urban dislocation is located within the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, the western global cultural and economic influence as well as individual effort and decision-making in the chapter. Chapter 4 explores the ways in which gendered urban spaces are portrayed in the fiction. The subordination of primarily women, as well as the weak and dependent irrespective of gender is discussed. The resultant anxieties, alienation, marginalisation of women and the subservient are viewed from the traditional and colonial patriarchy's construction of the city as a predominantly masculine space excluding women. The western global cultural and economic hegemony's creation of a new gendered ideology
characterised by the exclusion and feminisation of the poor, invisible and dependent is also discussed in this chapter. Nevertheless, the chapter ends with a discussion of the existing possibilities of female empowerment notably inscribed in the city's open education system, informal trade space as well as the provision of a social space encouraging pragmatic female decision-making especially in relation to HIV and AIDS. Finally the dissertation's concluding note is based on an evaluation of the postcolonial condition of southern Africa in relation to the mapping of the urban spaces
and various identities represented in the fiction. An attempt is also made to place the research within the problematic of whether the mapping is based on postcolonialism or postmodernism. The objective here is to offer the importance of a cross-reading between the two as enabling a more meaningful conception of the region's current urban space.Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.
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Donga, Jabulani. "Zimbabwean women's writing: a study of the fiction of Barbara Makhalisa, Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembga." Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2012.
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Mbatha, P. "A feminist analysis of Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous conditions (1988)." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/477.
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Chigidi, Willie L. "The emergence and development of the Shona detective story as a fictional genre in Zimbabwean literature." Diss., 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/16468.
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This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstream
Shona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale and
develops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller.
An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementary
and showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed the
detective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Western
ftlms and English detective stories.
The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detective
story manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels its
treatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shona
novel.African Languages
M.A. (African Languages)
14
Mbwera, Shereck. "Short stories for life : implications of the Canonisation of the Zimbabwe story-telling tradition, with special reference to selected Zimbabwean short stories." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22592.
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This study examines the myth of the surrogate power of canonicity by exposing the condition of liminality of the Zimbabwean short story genre within African literary canon. Building on the hypothesis that canonisation distorts literature the study postulates that literary canon produce predictable biases in construing the position of the short story. It fossilises and condenses the marginal genres to the extent that the existing canon repertoire hardly recognises them. The peripheral but de facto canon of the short story genre entertains a strong relationship of heteronomy to the mainstream/central canon. This thesis studies this relationship which determines canon formation within the African literary systems. It challenges the prevailing status quo in which the short story is polarised against other literary modes. The polarity creates a charged diametric force between the presumed canonical genres and the supposedly non-canonical short story mess. What lacks in this equation of conflicts is a sense of revival, reformation and continuity of the short story canon. The marginality of the short story canon is predicated on factors external to the genre itself, such as the influence of colonial institutions, collegiate institutions and publishers on writers. These factors pervade the dialectics of canonical marginality of the genre. The study, which argues that there is no unanimity on theory of canon, proposes Africulture, as both a theory and praxis of Afrocentricity, to function as an arbiter of short story literary reputation and consecration. The research reveres the autonomous value of African story-telling tradition which withstood the test and movement of time, in the process, surviving not only the historical-cum-cultural threat of colonial loss and canonical displacement, but also the throes and will power of new media and digital technologies. The ascendancy of the electronic short story genre to canonical status remains questionable. Critical controversies abound about the canonicity of electronic literature. The study employs Technauriture as a theoretical model for rethinking the transcendence of the electronic short story canon. The study concludes that, by virtue of its resilience, the short story ought to be treated as a wholesale and independent genre, worth of full scale appreciation.African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
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Chigwedere, Yuleth. "Head of darkness : representations of "madness" in postcolonial Zimbabwean literature." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/20981.
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This study critically explores the numerous strains of “madness” that Zimbabwean authors represent in their postcolonial literature. My focus is on their reflection of “madness” as either an individual state of being, or as symptomatic of the socio-political and economic condition in the country. I have adopted insights from an existential psychoanalytic framework in my literary analysis in order to bring in an innovative dimension to this investigation of the phenomenon. I consider this an appropriate stance for this study as it has enriched my reading of the literary texts under study, as well as played a crucial role in providing me with effective conceptual tools for understanding the manifestations of “madness” in the texts. The literary works that I critique are Shimmer Chinodya’s Chairman of Fools (2009), Mashingaidze Gomo’s A Fine Madness (2010), Brian Chikwava’s Harare North, Petina Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly (2009), Tsitsi Dangarembga’s The Book of Not (2006) and Yvonne Vera’s Without a Name (1994) and Butterfly Burning (1998). These selected texts offer me an opportunity to analyse the gender dynamics and discourses of “madness”, which I do from a peculiarly indigenous and feminist perspective. My study reveals that these authors’ representations are located in and shaped by very specific temporal and spatial contexts, which, in turn, shed light on the characters’ existential reality, revealing aspects of their relationship with the world around them. It demonstrates that their notions of “madness” denote different markers of identity, such as race, class, gender, and religion, amongst others. Significantly, my literary analysis illustrates the varied permutations of “madness” by exposing how these authors characterise the phenomenon as trauma, as alienation, as depression, as insanity, as subversion, as freedom, and even as a sign of the
state of affairs in Zimbabwe. This investigation also reveals that because “madness” in these authors’ fiction is intricately linked to the question of identity, it manifests in situations where the characters’ sense of ontological security is compromised in some way. What emerges is that “madness” can either signify a grapple with identity, a loss of it, or a struggle for its redefinitionEnglish Studies
D.Litt. et Phil. (English)
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Mangwanda, Khombe M. "The Zimbabwean nation as cultural construct in the works of John Eppel, Dambudzo Marechera and Yvonne Vera." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27635.
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Chigidi, Willie L. "A study of Shona war fiction : the writer's perspectives." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/3118.
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This thesis is an in-depth study of Shona fiction about the liberation war in Zimbabwe. It looks at the way Zimbabwe’s liberation war is portrayed in Shona fiction and focuses on the factors that shaped writers’ perspectives on that war. It is argued that Shona war fiction writers romanticised the war and in the process simplified and distorted history. The researcher postulates that writers’ perspectives on this liberation war were shaped by factors that include the mood of celebration and euphoria, the dominant ideology of the time, the situations of independence and freedom, and literary competitions. The thesis further raises and illustrates the point that writers produced romances of adventure because they were writing on the theme of war, and if one writes on the theme of war one ends up writing an adventure story. However, it is also acknowledged that because authors were writing on a historical event they could not ignore history completely. Some aspects of history are incorporated into the fiction, thereby retaining a semblance of historical realism. The post-independence period is also seen as a time of cultural revival and this is considered as the reason behind the authors’ tendency to celebrate Shona traditional institutions and culture. The celebration of Shona traditional religion and culture introduced into the fiction the element of the supernatural that strengthened the romance aspect of the novels. Shona war fiction writers also perpetuate female stereotyping. Female characters are depicted as everything except guerrilla fighters. It is argued that there are no female characters that play roles of guerrilla fighters because during the actual war women were not visible at the war front, fighting. The thesis argues that men, who were pioneers of the guerrilla war and writers of the war stories, excluded women from liberation war discourse and ultimately from literary discourse as well. A few writers who comment on the quality of Zimbabwe’s independence and freedom show the disillusionment and despair of the peasants and ex-combatants as they struggled to settle down and recover from the war.African Languages
D.Litt. et Phil.
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Gwekwerere, Tavengwa. "Space, voice and authority : white critical thought on the Black Zimbabwean novel." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/13848.
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All bodies of critical discourse on any given literary canon seek visibility through self- celebration, subversion of competing critical ideas and identification with supposedly popular, scientific and incisive critical theories. Thus, the literary-critical quest for significance and visibility is, in essence, a quest for „space‟, „voice‟ and „authority‟ in the discussion of aspects of a given literary corpus. This research explores the politics of „space‟, „voice‟ and „authority‟ in „white critical thought‟ on „the black Zimbabwean novel‟. It unfolds in the context of the realisation that as a body of critical discourse on „the black Zimbabwean novel‟, „white critical thought‟ does not only emerge in an intellectual matrix in which it shares and competes for „space‟, „voice‟ and „authority‟ with other bodies of critical thought on the literary episteme in question; it also develops in the ambit of Euro-African cultural politics of hegemony and resistance. Thus, the
research sets out to identify the ways in which „white critical thought‟ affirms and perpetuates or questions and negates European critical benchmarks and cultural models in
the discussion of selected aspects of „the black Zimbabwean novel‟. The investigation considers the fissures at the heart of „white critical thought‟ as a critical discourse and the
myriad of ways in which it interacts with competing critical discourses on the „the black
Zimbabwean novel‟. It derives impetus from the fact that while other versions of critical
thought on „the black Zimbabwean novel‟ have received extensive metacritical discussion elsewhere, „white critical thought‟ remains largely under-discussed. This phenomenon enables it to solidify into a settled body of critical thought. The metacritical discussion of
„white critical thought‟ in this research constitutes part of the repertoire of efforts that
will help check the solidification of critical discourses into hegemonic bodies of thought. The research makes use of Afrocentric and Postcolonial critical tenets to advance the contention that while „white critical thought‟ on „the black Zimbabwean novel‟ is fraught with fissures and contradictions that speak directly to its complexity and resistance to neat categorisation, it is largely vulnerable to identification as part of the paraphernalia of European cultural and intellectual hegemony in African literature and its criticism, given its tendency to discuss the literature outside the context of critical theories that emerge from the same culture and history with the literary corpus in question.African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)
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Mukiwa, Faresi Rumbidzai. "Women and utterance in contexts of violence : Nehanda, Without a name and The strange virgins by Yvonne Vera." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1632.
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This dissertation is a study of women and utterance in contexts of violence in the three selected novels written by the late Yvonne Vera: Nehanda (1993), Without a Name (1994), and The Stone Virgins (2002). A study of the representation of women in particular is appropriate because their role in the making of the history of Zimbabwe has been deliberately undermined or ignored by 'patriotic' historians and politicians alike. This study incorporates a historical and post-colonial feminist analysis of women and their empowerment through utterance in Vera's novels. Their achieving utterance is seen as a way of countering a past tendency to focus on women being victims of patriarchal ideologies with little being done to expose the degree and nature of women's resistance against oppressive, socially constructed gender relations. The kind of violence experienced by Vera's women is both physical (rape and murder) and psychological. Two dimensions of utterance have been explored in this study. Firstly, the study examined what the characters can and cannot say about their conditions of suffering. This entailed an examination of their cultural and contextual limitations as well as their personal difficulties. Secondly, the study investigated how Vera, writing some fifteen years after the events she depicts and with the advantage of hindsight, represents her women characters as agents of their own recovery from the violation perpetrated against them. This involved an analysis of Vera's utterance and her thematic concerns, especially her revisioning of history in breaking the silence of her women characters. Positioned in relation to existing critical works on Vera's novels, this study's contribution to the critical debate has been its demonstration of how Vera, through the use of her narrative technique and unique poetic style was able to challenge the conditions of women in the past in a way that has relevance to present-day Zimbabwe and offers possibilities for the future Zimbabwe.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.
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Moyo, Thamsanqa. "The unsettling of colonialist and nationalist spaces : John Eppel's writings on Zimbabwe." Thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/25320.
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The Rhodesian and Zimbabwean space-time involved the creation and adoption of hegemonic discourses that influenced ways of behavior, thinking, perceiving reality and particular ways of identity construction based on mystifying nationalisms. In raced and politically charged spaces, such grand narratives depended, for their currency, on stereotypes, essentialisms, domination and dichotomization of ‘nation as narration’. The metanarratives of the two spaces functioned as discursive tools for the legitimation of particular forms of exclusions, elisions and distortions. As discursive and polemical literary tools, these discourses always found sustenance and perpetuation in the existence of a different other. In other words, these constructed narratives sought to use difference as a basis for scapegoating and naturalizing racial, economic, political and resource asymmetries in the Rhodesian and Zimbabwean spaces. Power was wielded not in the service of, but against, the majority who are marginalized. This study explores John Eppel’s writings on the constructions of both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe as ideological spaces for the legitimation of power based on class, race and politics. I argue that Eppel’s selected writings are a literary intervention that proffers a satirically dissident critique of the foundational myths, symbols and narratives of Rhodesian and Zimbabwean space-time. The study argues that Eppel offers literary resistance to unproblematized identity compositions predicated on socially constructed but skewed categories that limit the contours of belonging and citizenship. The Rhodesian space is viewed as a palimpsest upon which is overwritten the Zimbabwean patriotic discourse that also authorize racism, marginalization, power abuse and other forms of exclusion. In examining Eppel’s satiric disruption of both spaces, I use certain strands of the Postcolonial Theory that problematize issues of nation, identity, race, tribe and power. Its usefulness lies in its rejection of fixities, of absolutes and in its general counter-hegemonic thrust. I therefore invoke the theorizations of Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha, Maria
Lara, Paul Gilroy, Mikhail Bakhtin and Benita Parry. These form the theoretical base with which the study confronts Eppel’s writings on Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. The focal texts used are: Absent: The English Teacher (2009), selected short stories in White Man Crawling (2007) and The Caruso of Colleen Bawn (2004), The Holy Innocents (2002), Hatchings (2006), selected poems from Spoils of War (1989), Songs my Country Taught me: Selected Poems 1965-2005(2005) and D.G.G.Berry’s The Great North Road (1992). I conclude by arguing that Eppel creates a fictional life-world where race, origin, politics, class and culture are figured as polarizing identity markers that should be re-negotiated and even transcended in order to materialize a more inclusive multicultural society. To the extent that both the colonial and post-independence eras cross-fertilize each other in terms of occlusions, creating hegemonic narratives, resort to race, violence, silencing and erasure of certain subjectivities, Eppel advocates the ‘hatching’ of a new national, moral and inclusive ethos that supersedes the claustrophobia of both spaces.English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil.(English)
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Sisimayi, Weston. "The representation of marginalized voices and trauma in selected novels of Tsitsi Dangarembga and Yvonne Vera." Diss., 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/25133.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91)My thesis focuses on the representation of marginalized voices and trauma in the selected fiction of Tsitsi Dangarembga and Yvonne Vera. I analyze three novels written by the Yvonne Vera—Without a Name (1994), Under the Tongue(1996) and The Stone Virgins(2002) set during the Zimbabwe liberation struggle period and postcolonial Zimbabwe dissident era respectively and Nervous Conditions(1988) and its sequel, The Book of Not (1996), by Dangarembga set during the 1960s to 1970s colonial Rhodesia period (the colonial name for Zimbabwe) and during the period of white‐minority rule in Rhodesia to the attainment of independence in 1980. I analyze these novels from the feminist/womanist, gender and postcolonial literary models. The rational for grouping these theoretical models in the analysis in this thesis is that they commonly highlight from a gender perspective the complex factors which oppress and marginalize women in the colonial and postcolonial contexts in which the two authors set their writings. These literary paradigms highlight the oppression of women from an African perspective and all acknowledge the need to address all factors which oppress and subordinate women (gender, race, class) if total emancipation for them is to be achieved. I also posit that Vera and Dangarembga offer discourses that challenge the silencing of narratives of oppression and violation in their novels selected for analysis in this thesis. The thesis has five chapters. In Chapter 1, I set out the argument of the thesis and give a brief history of gendered colonialism and the historical period which provides a setting for the fiction of the two authors. Next, I describe the conceptual framework I will use in analyzing the works of the two postcolonial Zimbabwe female writers. Then I will outline the research questions and hypothesis and expose the research methodology and approach that will serve as my vehicle for data collection, analysis and interpretation. In Chapter 2, I will focus on gender, class and race and discuss the ways Dangarembga explores these factors in Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not. I will also discuss innovate ways women explore to champion their freedom and voice in the fiction of Dangarembga. Chapter 3 focuses on the novels of Yvonne Vera— Without a Name, Under the Tongue and The stone Virgins —which articulate narratives of violated subjects and silenced voices. I will discuss the ways Vera explores to show how narratives of violated subjects are silenced by patriarchy, colonialism and masculine narratives of nationalism in these novels. Chapter 4 focuses on narratives of trauma. Using theories of trauma, I will analyze Without a Name, Under the Tongue and The Stone Virgins by Vera and show how these narratives articulate colonial and postcolonial trauma and female child trauma. I will also discuss The Book of Not by Dangarembga and show how the novel articulates colonial and racial trauma. My discussion of the novels of Vera and Dangarembga in this chapter will show that these novels work out traumatic experiences in the colonial and postcolonial eras and will also reveal the challenges of representing tra
English Studies
M.A. (English)
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Makaudze, Godwin. "Shona fiction and its treatment of socio-economic issues in Zimbabwe." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2956.
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Much of what has been researched on Shona fiction has been limited to literature published before independence. The current research endeavours to assess the treatment of socio-economic issues as conveyed through fiction published since 1990. This fiction focuses on socio-economic issues in both pre-colonial and independent Zimbabwe. The study endeavours to establish if writers who focus on these issues in the pre-colonial era have been able to reclaim a complicated picture of the African pasts. It also discusses fiction that focuses on post-independence experiences; such as extent of the impact of empowerment brought about by independence, continued poverty among Africans, emancipation of the female being and the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Here, it strives to ascertain if the writers have identified the causes and offer meaningful solutions to these. The study observes that contemporary novelists on the Shona pasts have reclaimed more realistic ‘worlds’ when compared to their predecessors who have largely presented distorted images of these pasts. On the outcome of independence, two groups portray it as a total success and a total failure respectively, whilst the third and more successful group gives a balanced exposition. Fiction on poverty among contemporary Africans falls into two classes, namely rural and urban. The former still suffers from the heavy influence of colonial myths as it only highlights the effects of poverty without situating them in their tension-ridden historical context. The latter provides important sociological information on the plight of the characters but is lacking when it comes to suggesting ways of alleviating such poverty. On female empowerment, it emerges that while some writers are for women empowerment, others are against it. Women writers are better at explaining problems of women. However, both groups are still unable to identify the root cause of the incapacitation of women. On HIV and AIDS, whilst male writers demonstrate a wider social vision on the factors that disempower society against the spread and curbing of the virus, female authors still fall in the trap of blaming both men and Shona traditional customs. Overall, it emerges that contemporary Shona writers reveal contradictory modes in articulating these issues.African Languages
Thesis (D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages))
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Ntabeni, Sally-Susan. "Theme and character : some reflections on the historical context of the Ndebele novel." Diss., 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/15668.
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According to Chiwome, ' ... a writer's social vislon is a soclo-spiritual and historical
product. A response to a complex process of Indoctrination' (1996: 16).The
response can be a reaction depending on whose interests the issue is considered.
The Ndebele novelist finds himself caught in the crossfire between two great
traditions. He tries to be true to his background while still having to do justice to his
newly acquired skill of graphically presenting his thoughts, feelings, and experiences
He is a Victim of socio-political systems bent on giving education which moulds the
mind to built-in- choices. Both poilitical eras use the printed word to further their
ideologies . The Ndebele novelist finds himself having to remould his artistic genius if
he is to fit in. In the process the goals of novelistic practice are missed.
The novel will not communicate effectively since it has to answer to particular
external forces. These forces derive,' ... from the urge of power to protect itself, to
perpetuate itself, to prevail' (Chiwome 1996 :22).
On the threshold of the two eras, the novel becomes a political statement. It Is this
political aspect of the novel which continues to create what Chiwome (1996) has
called creative timidity and mediocrity.African Languages
M.A. (African Languages)
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Quansah, Ekua A. "Women of African ancestry's contribution to scholarship: Voices through fiction (Edwidge Danticat, Haiti, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Zimbabwe, Dionne Brand)." 2005. http://link.library.utoronto.ca/eir/EIRdetail.cfm?Resources__ID=370494&T=F.
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Panashe, Gloria Chigumadzi. "Of nation, narration and Nehanda: accounts by Samupindi and Vera." Thesis, 2017. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/25909.
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A research report submitted in fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Masters in African Literature of Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, April 2017This research report uses the “Frozen Image” - a widely circulated photograph taken by the British South Africa Company of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi, the female and male Shona Mhondoros who led Zimbabwe’s first anti-colonial uprising against the settlers, as its point of departure to explore the relationship between settler-colonial, nationalist, patriarchal and feminist versions of Mbuya Nehanda’s role and agency in the First Chimurenga. This paper begins by demonstrating that it is necessary for nationalist discourses to seek to “lock in” the histories embodied in visual moments such as the widely and historically circulated “Frozen Image”, arguing that they are reliant on the “fixedness” of gendered national temporalities. I argue that Charles Samupindi’s Death Throes: The Trial Against Mbuya Nehanda demonstrates that when the challenge to settler-colonial projections of an African past go unaccompanied by an interrogation of historical gender relations and a broader challenge to Western modernities, it is necessary to remain faithful to, and narrate the Frozen Image, in a self-conscious, realist, imaginatively constrained narrative project. This is whereas Yvonne Vera’s, Nehanda demonstrates that it is possible to “move beyond the image” to create a liberatory, poetic and imaginative narrative project.
XL2018
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Alexander, Pauline Ingrid. "A story that would (O)therwise not have been told." Diss., 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1764.
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My mini-dissertation gives the autobiography of Talent Nyathi, who was born in rural Zimbabwe in 1961. Talent was unwillingly conscripted into the Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle. On her return to Zimbabwe, she has worked tirelessly for the education of her compatriots.
Talent's story casts light on subject-formation in conditions of difficulty, suffering and victimization. Doubly oppressed by her race and gender, Talent has nevertheless shown a remarkable capacity for self-empowerment and the empowerment of others.
Her story needs to be heard because it will inspire other women and other S/subjects and because it is a corrective to both the notions of a heroic Struggle and the `victim' stereotype of Africa.
Together with Talent's autobiography, my mini-dissertation offers extensive notes that situate her life story in the context of contemporary postcolonial, literary and gender theory and further draws out the significance of her individual `history-from-below'.English Studies
M.A.
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Wasosa, Wellington. "Deviance and moralisiation as portrayed in selected post-independence Shona novels and short stories." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19842.
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This thesis is an exegesis of the portrayal of deviance in selected post-independence Shona fictional works. The analysis is done within the context of moralisation in Shona literature. The forms of deviant behaviour discussed include prostitution, homosexuality, crime and violence and negligence of duty within families. The fictional works are Mapenzi (1999), Totanga Patsva (2003), Ndozviudza Aniko? (2006), Ndafa Here? (2008), and Makaitei? (2008). All the fictional works are set during the period of the Zimbabwe Crisis and this becomes the context of the criticism of the manner in which deviance is handled by the writers. Particular attention is paid on the causes and solutions to deviance, images of deviants and the implications of such images in attempting to understand the realities of deviant behaviour. The research adopts an eclectic approach through a combination of literary and sociological theories to unpack issues concerning the litigious subject of deviance. The research fully acknowledges that deviance is a fluid and controversial concept as it varies with cultural frameworks and historical periods of certain societies. Thus the research has endeavoured to locate deviance with the ambit of Shona existential philosophy and the period of the Zimbabwe crisis. The research advances the argument that no human being is inherently deviant but there are certain circumstances and eventualities that are responsible for the development of such a personality. Therefore deviance herein is viewed as a response to the situation and in the case of this research it is the crisis which then is responsible for nurturing the people into deviance. In most of the situations, deviance is shown to be essentially a survival strategy by those who engage in it. Prostitution, homosexuality and crime have been shown to be largely economic necessities as the collapsing economy during the period of the crisis came with amorphous challenges and people resorted to anti-social behaviour in an attempt to live contenting lives. With regards to prostitution, homosexuality and crime, the writers have to a larger extent been able to contextualise deviance in terms of the crisis although Mabasa has been shown to display some ambivalence in his treatment of prostitutes in Mapenzi and Ndafa Here? There are instances he castigates prostitutes as social renegades which somehow weakens his vision. Apart from this, it has also been argued that deviant behaviour can be a result of the frustrations people face as they battle the vagaries of life. Violence and negligence of duty within families is argued to be a consequence of the frustrations from the poverty brought by the crisis and the movement into the diaspora as this has its own challenges that disempower people to carry out their duties as sanctioned by culture. Also, the research advances the argument that oral literature continues to impact on written literature and one such area is that of moralisation which continues to be a major priority of the writers. Except for the authors of the short stories in Totanga Patsva, moralisation on issues to do with deviance has been done in an enlightening way as the writers unearth the underlying causes of deviant behaviour and these are found in society and not individuals. The writers of the short stories have shown to be largely influenced by feminism and erroneously blame male deviants for the problems faced by women instead of explaining men`s behaviour in the context colonialism and neo-colonialism which brought various challenges related to gender relations in Africa not experienced hitherto. The direction in terms of qualitative development which Shona literature is taking in post-independence era is positive as the writers are shown to be tackling sensitive political, social and economic issues and their impact on the human condition.African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil.
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Pasi, Juliet Sylvia. "Theorising the environment in fiction: exploring ecocriticism and ecofeminism in selected black female writers’ works." Thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/23789.
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Text in EnglishThis thesis investigates the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world or natural environment in selected literary works by black female writers in colonial and post-colonial Namibia and Zimbabwe. Some Anglo-American scholars have argued that many African writers have resisted the paradigms that inform much of global ecocriticism and have responded to it weakly. They contend that African literary feminist studies have not attracted much mainstream attention yet mainly to raise some issues concerning ecologically oriented literary criticism and writing. Given this unjust criticism, the study posits that there has been a growing interest in ecocriticism and ecofeminism in literary works by African writers, male and female, and they have represented the social, political (colonial and anti-colonial) and economic discourse in their works. The works critiqued are Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (1988) and The Book of Not (2006), Neshani Andreas’ The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (2001) and No Violet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names (2013). The thrust of this thesis is to draw interconnections between man’s domination of nature and the subjugation and dominance of black women as depicted in different creative works. The texts in this study reveal that the existing Anglo-American framework used by some scholars to define ecocriticism and ecofeminism should open up and develop debates and positions that would allow different ways of reading African literature. The study underscored the possibility of black female creative works to transform the definition of nature writing to allow an expansion and all encompassing interpretation of nature writing. Contrary to the claims by Western scholars that African literature draws its vision of nature writing from the one produced by colonial discourse, this thesis argues that African writers and scholars have always engaged nature and the environment in multiple discourses. This study breaks new ground by showing that the feminist aspects of ecrocriticism are essential to cover the hermeneutic gap created by their exclusion. On closer scrutiny, the study reveals that African women writers have also addressed and highlighted issues that show the link between African women’s roles and their environment.
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)
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Mandova, Evans. "Critical perspectives on selected Shona novelists' conceptualisation and depiction of the African communitarian worldview of Unhu (Humanity to others)." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22591.
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This study interrogates how Shona novelists conceptualise and depict the African communitarian worldview of unhu (humanity to others). The study relies on content analysis of selected Shona novels, critical reviews from various scholars, journals, newspapers and theses, augmented by interviews and questionnaires. The theoretical framework is guided by Afrocentricity and Africana Womanism which are pivotal to the explication of meaning from selected texts, with the view to examining whether or not the writers‟ portrayal and understanding of unhu helps Africa‟s socio-cultural and political liberation. Given that the African worldview of unhu celebrates virtues central to mutual social responsibility, mutual respect, trust, self-reliance, caring, among other attributes. These tenets help to revitalise and rejuvenate the decaying socio-cultural fabric of Zimbabwe. The study intimates that unhu principles could be fruitfully embraced in charting a dispensation in which all people of Zimbabwe could subordinate their personal interests to the interests, respecting one another, thus forging enduring peace and development while, at the same time, the leadership would be governed by democratic tenets espoused through unhu.African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)