Forms of resistance against the African postcolony in Brian Chikwava's Harare North

Vol.41,No.1(2015)

Dobrota Pucherová

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2015-1-10

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/134770

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Abstract
The article analyzes the novel Harare North by Zimbabwean diasporic writer Brian Chikwava in the context of African writing of post-independence disillusionment and the Cameroonian thinker's Achille Mbembe's analysis of the African postcolony. Mbembe argues that the inhabitants of the postcolony are alienated not only from the state, but also from their own selves, since the post-colony forces them to adapt to permanent change by creating unstable, fragmented identities. Taking its cue from Mbembe, the study explores the forms of political resistance after the break-down of the subject, in whom the identities of victim and oppressor fluidly co-exist. The study concludes by relating Chikwava's representation of the postcolonial subject to Homi Bhabha's unhomeliness.

Keywords:
Zimbabwean literature; resistance in literature; African diasporic writing; Achille Mbembe; Brian Chikwava; Homi Bhabha

Pages:
157–173
References

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