Department of English

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Browsing Department of English by browse.metadata.advisor "Gagiano, A."

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    Forms of hypocrisy in the writings of Dambudzo Marechera
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1999-12) Zinaka, Pauls Jonah; Gagiano, A.; Nuttall, S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Perceiving every established notion as inherently entrapping, Dambudzo Marechera rejects and strives to elude all manner of categorisation which tends to submerge one's individuality. His fundamental conviction is that only those whose motive is to exercise power over other human beings insist on fixed notions such asnation, race, culture, religion and ideology. This is because such self-seekers realise that human beings tend to be more susceptible to manipulation if they identify themselves with established categories or discourses. Given the trend in African writing during the anti-colonial period to identify with nationalist discourse, Marechera cuts the figure of a literary funambulist: not only does he refuse to write for a specific nation or race, but he also dismisses fixed notions of nation and race as spurious Machiavellian fabrications aimed at fossilising people's minds for purposes of easier regimentation. Predictably, Marechera invokes the wrath of nationalist critics who see in him a self-deprecating African reactionary or a mere Uncle Tom who affects European avant-gardism. This thesis uses close textual reading to explore Marechera's combative engagement with what he perceives as hegemonic discourses which mask themselves in various deceptive forms. The central theme is Marechera's representation of hypocrisy. His commitment to a vision that transcends evanescent agendas such as political independence is a recurrent motif in this thesis. I also examine the ways in which he deploys complex metaphors and allegories to expose the workings of hypocrisy. Of equal interest is his motivation in deliberately sabotaging the rules of conventional grammar. I consider this in the light of the fact that to Marechera, English - his second language – is also the language of the metropole.