Life writing from the margins in Zimbabwe : versions and subversions of crisis / Oliver Nyambi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nyambi, Oliver, author.

Contributor:

John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Series:

Routledge contemporary Africa series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zimbabwe--History--1980-.

Zimbabwe.

History.

Zimbabwe--Social conditions--1980-.

Social conditions.

Autobiography--Zimbabwean authors.

Autobiography.

Biography as a literary form.

Biography.

National characteristics in literature.

Postcolonialism in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 235 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019.

Summary:

"This book explores the unique contributions of various forms of post-2000 life-writings such as the autobiography, epistles and biographies to discourses about the nature and socio-politics of what has become known as the Zimbabwean crisis (c. 2000 - 2009). Much of what has been written about the Zimbabwean crisis - a decade-long period of unprecedented economic collapse and political upheavals in the southern African country - is strictly discipline-specific and therefore limited to unidimensional modes of theorizing the crisis's many and complex dimensions and dynamics. In this context, this book charts a paradigm shift in hermeneutic and epistemological approaches to comprehending the Zimbabwean crisis. Life Writing from the Margins in Zimbabwe centres the experiences and memories of ordinary Zimbabweans in pluralizing modes of seeing and knowing the crisis. The book argues that these life-writings present a rich site for encountering versions of the crisis that relate in counter-discursive ways, to the dominant, state-authored narrative of the nation in crisis. Oliver Nyambi's analysis contributes new ideas to ongoing debates about how cultural texts reflect on the postcoloniality of both power, and experiences and negotiations of power in the context of crisis. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of African literature, Zimbabwean/African studies, postcolonial literature, life-writing and cultural studies"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Contested versions of nation, nationness and nationality

"Howzat": sport, representing and re-presenting the nation in Henry Olonga's Blood, sweat and treason: my story

Alternative iconographies: recentering unconventional memories in Tekere's A lifetime of struggle

"All the beautiful soldiers": narrating trauma and state violence in Hope deferred: narratives of Zimbabwean lives

"Through the eyes of a mum": the affects of disclosure and moral justice in Cathy Buckle's Life writings of the crisis

"In the midst of a very dark Africa": land, spirituality and an enduring coloniality in Henry Jackson's Another farm in Africa

Black racism?: negotiating the colour of belonging in Mugabe and the white African.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John G. Hartman Memorial Library Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781138352568

113835256X

0429434693

9780429434693

OCLC:

1046069475