Violence and memory in Zimbabwean literature : armed peace in the postcolonial era / Tanaka Chidora.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chidora, Tanaka, Author.

Series:

Routledge studies in African literature http://id.loc.gov/resources/hubs/c4181962-d368-6e9a-db05-8c2214cc70df

Routledge studies in African literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zimbabwean fiction (English)--History and criticism--20th century.

Zimbabwean fiction (English).

Zimbabwean fiction (English)--History and criticism--21st century.

Collective memory in literature.

Political violence in literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 248 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2026.

Summary:

"This book investigates how Zimbabwean literary texts subvert state-sponsored amnesia when it comes to the many forms of past and ongoing political violence in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean Literature provides an important space for confronting the past and reflecting on how violence continues into the present day. This violent past was forgotten either through the promise of violence against those who sought to remember, or by depicting the violence as a necessary tool of a never-ending decolonisation process, or by appealing to the logic of letting bygones be bygones. For instance, by claiming that the five years of the Gukurahundi genocide were 'a moment of madness', Robert Mugabe set a climate of state-sponsored amnesia which has persisted through subsequent acts of state violence and into the Mnangagwa era. Drawing on key works by Shimmer Chinodya, Alexander Kanengoni, Yvonne Vera, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Brian Chikwava, Chenjerai Hove, Panashe Chigumadzi, and NoViolet Bulawayo, this book investigates how fictional works challenge this state-sponsored amnesia, both in relation to Gukurahundi and other past and ongoing forms of violence. Bringing together iconic literary texts from 1980 to 2022, the book draws a common thread through the texts' connected histories and highlights their role in de-silencing the past. Situated at the interface of memory studies and literary criticism, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of African literature, politics, development, and history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Violent (Re)Births, Armed Peace and the Politics of Memory in Zimababwe

Destabilising the War Metanarrative in Shimmer Chinodya's Harvest Of Thorns and Alexander Kanengoni's Echoing Silences

Narrating Gukurahundi Trauma: A violent independence in the House of Stone

A Decade of Crisis, a Decade of Violence: The children Of Harare North and We Need New Names

The Forgotten Doubles of NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory

Re-Memorying Nehanda in Chenjerai Hove's Bones and Panashe Chigumadzi's These Bones Will Rise Again

Conclusion: The future of the past in Zimbabwean politics and literature.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version Chidora, Tanaka Violence and memory in Zimbabwean literature

ISBN:

9781032749556

1032749555

9781032749570

1032749571

OCLC:

1528522378