Out of crisis: discourses of enabling and disabling spaces in post-2000 Zimbabwean literary texts in english
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Date
2017-12
Authors
Chidora, Tanaka
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State (Qwaqwa Campus)
Abstract
This research centralises the underutilised ‘tragic edge’ and dialectics of exile’ perspectives in
the analysis of black- and white-authored narratives that came out of post-2000 Zimbabwe.
These narratives are Harare North (Brian Chikwava, 2009); An Elegy for Easterly (Petina
Gappah, 2009); Writing Free (Irene Staunton [Ed.], 2011);We Need New Names (NoViolet
Bulawayo, 2013); The Magistrate, the Maestro & the Mathematician (Tendai Huchu, 2014);
African Tears: The Zimbabwe Land Invasions (Catherine Buckle, 2001); The Last Resort
(Douglas Rogers, 2009); This September Sun (Bryony Rheam, 2009); and Lettah’s Gift
(Graham Lang, 2011). The texts depict a post-2000 Zimbabwean period that is characterised
by various forms of turmoil which give rise to exilic sensibilities in terms of the narratives’
thematic concerns and in terms of the aesthetic choices of writers. Dialectically speaking,
moving out of, and into, crisis are discrepant movements happening simultaneously on the
same space and in one text so that those who move, and those who do not move, are afflicted
by the turmoil of existing out of place. This makes problematic the notion of globalisation and
the freedoms of nomadic experiences that it has ostensibly ushered. The study critically
analyses how these texts depict crisis-induced exile (both physical and symbolic), the
[ambiguous] transgression of physical and symbolic borders in the search for enabling spaces
and the consequent struggle with issues of space and belonging in a globalising world (which
is epitomic of the postcolonial condition) but in which, paradoxically, issues of race, nation
and identity remain at the fore in determining who “we” are. I deploy McClennen’s ‘dialectics
of exile’ theory in the reading of the texts because of its recognition of the dialectics and tragic
edge of exile. Also central to this research is the use of Lefebvre’s concept of space and
Geschiere’s notion of belonging. Since space, as Lefebvre has theorised, is in a continuous
state of flux due to human action of producing and reproducing, constructing and
deconstructing, inventing and re-inventing it, the argument that is foregrounded in this thesis
is that the non-fixity of space spells an endless search for it by the characters in the selected
narratives which complicates their sense of belonging. This also makes moving out of crisis a
paradox since it spells moving into crisis. Also important is the centrality of representation as
a symbolic exemplification of globalisation or its nemeses – race, nation and other like
shibboleths that are usually associated with pre-modern sensibilities. While the inclusion of
black and white writers in the same canon is done as an expression of a post-racial spirit, this
study also centralises the politico-aesthetics of representation. Thus, how white writers
represent black people, or how black writers represent white people, is critical in understanding
the nature of the globe and the everyday spaces on which people circulate. The whole idea
behind the dialectic is the simultaneity of the existence of contradictory phenomena. The
deployment of the dialectics of exile theory therefore facilitates the conclusion that the globe
should be understood dialectically in terms of contradictory phenomena like the pre-modern,
modern and postmodern existing on the same space and influencing the politico-aesthetic
regimes that the writers of selected narratives deploy and the ambiguities of the movements
that the characters undertake. As a consequence of reading the texts from this perspective, and
especially by closely deploying the methodological tools I have chosen, I suggest that any
reading of exile narratives and theorisations of the postcolonial should be done with an
awareness of the importance of space and belonging and the dialectical nature of the globe.
Description
Keywords
Post-2000 Zimbabwean literature, Exile, Space, Belonging, Dialectics of exile theory, Postcoloniality, Diaspora, Enabling, Disabling, Crisis, Migration, Home, Thesis (D.Phil. (English))--University of the Free State, 2017