Violence and Memory in Zimbabwean Literature

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. Situated at the interface of memory studies and literary criticism, this book will interest researchers of African literature, politics, development, and history.

Tanaka Chidora is a Humboldt Fellow (2021-2023), a lecturer in the Department of Literary Studies at the University of Malawi and a research fellow in the Deparment of English, University of the Free State, South Africa. He is the Co-Chief Editor of Matatu: Journal for African Literary and Cultural Studies. Chidora is the author of Because Sadness is Beautiful? (2019), a collection of poems published to critical acclaim in Zimbabwe. The manuscript of his forthcoming novel, Born Location, was longlisted for the Island Prize as Carrying a Country on Your Forehead in 2023.

1. Violent (Re)Births, Armed Peace and the Politics of Memory in Zimababwe 2. Destabilising the War Metanarrative in Shimmer Chinodya's Harvest Of Thorns and Alexander Kanengoni's Echoing Silences 3. Narrating Gukurahundi Trauma: A violent independence in the House of Stone 4. A Decade of Crisis, a Decade of Violence: The children Of Harare North and We Need New Names 5. The Forgotten Doubles of NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory 6. Re-Memorying Nehanda in Chenjerai Hove's Bones and Panashe Chigumadzi's These Bones Will Rise Again 7. Conclusion: The future of the past in Zimbabwean politics and literature