Zugl.: Duisburg, Essen, University, Diss., 2008.

Diss. Karlstad : Karlstads universitet, 2007.

Diss. Karlstad : Karlstads universitet, 2007.

The main purpose of this study is to discuss Yvonne Vera‟s representation of various aspects of women‟s identity in a patriarchal and colonial context as they manifest themselves through the women‟s relationships. I explore ways in which the question of self for some of Vera‟s women seems characterised by marginalisation across racial, cultural, ethnic and generational divides. The short stories and novel studied seem to emphasise that for women, under patriarchy and colonialism in Zimbabwe, seeking an independent and fulfilling identity seems to be interpreted as defying society‟s expectations and dictates. However, even as Vera tells of the various women‟s failure to make breakthroughs, she points at a less gender- inflexible future where both men and women will be valued for their true worth, and not their mere biology, through foregrounding the women‟s stories as they challenge and subvert their societies‟ received norms, traditions and values. / English / M.A. (English)

This thesis examines the links between and intersections of violence and subjectivity in a comparative, transatlantic and transnational study of the fiction of four recognized international authors, namely, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, J. M. Coetzee, and Yvonne Vera. Despite their differing geographical, temporal, cultural and socio-political situations and situatedness, these writers’ common, thematic concerns with taboo topics of violence such as rape, incest, infanticide and necrophilia, situate violence as a constitutive, intimate and intricate part of subjectivity. In providing varied, and not unproblematic, renderings of the mutuality of violence and subjectivity, their novels do not just reveal the ambiguous and ambivalent character and the fragile and tenuous processes of (exercising and asserting) subjectivity; their fiction enacts and engenders its own kind of textual violence that reflects and refracts the (metaphysical and epistemological) violence of the subjective process. Raising crucial questions about the place, role and efficacy of literature in articulating violence and subjectivity, this thesis argues that violence is meaningful to and constitutive of the subjective process in these authors’ works that offer an experiential, lived appreciation of subjectivity. Providing an historical and socio-political contextualization of the novels, the thesis maintains that these authors’ specific interpretations of violence in their fiction necessarily interrogates and reconfigures questions of race and culture, gender and sexuality, as well as morality; that is, it reexamines and repositions conventional interpretations of being and belonging, of subjectivity in general. In this way, their fiction reveals literature’s ability not merely to disprove theory but, through its very textuality, extend and enhance it to reflect the materiality of being.

This dissertation is a study of women and utterance in contexts of violence in the three selected novels written by the late Yvonne Vera: Nehanda (1993), Without a Name (1994), and The Stone Virgins (2002). A study of the representation of women in particular is appropriate because their role in the making of the history of Zimbabwe has been deliberately undermined or ignored by 'patriotic' historians and politicians alike. This study incorporates a historical and post-colonial feminist analysis of women and their empowerment through utterance in Vera's novels. Their achieving utterance is seen as a way of countering a past tendency to focus on women being victims of patriarchal ideologies with little being done to expose the degree and nature of women's resistance against oppressive, socially constructed gender relations. The kind of violence experienced by Vera's women is both physical (rape and murder) and psychological. Two dimensions of utterance have been explored in this study. Firstly, the study examined what the characters can and cannot say about their conditions of suffering. This entailed an examination of their cultural and contextual limitations as well as their personal difficulties. Secondly, the study investigated how Vera, writing some fifteen years after the events she depicts and with the advantage of hindsight, represents her women characters as agents of their own recovery from the violation perpetrated against them. This involved an analysis of Vera's utterance and her thematic concerns, especially her revisioning of history in breaking the silence of her women characters. Positioned in relation to existing critical works on Vera's novels, this study's contribution to the critical debate has been its demonstration of how Vera, through the use of her narrative technique and unique poetic style was able to challenge the conditions of women in the past in a way that has relevance to present-day Zimbabwe and offers possibilities for the future Zimbabwe. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Thesis (MA) -- Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following thesis aims to place black, female experience at the centre of an analysis of four main texts. These texts are Yvonne Vera's Nehanda and Without a Name as well as Toni Morrison' s Song of Solomon and Beloved. By comparing and analysing these four novels, also utilising selected works from various theorists such as bell hooks and Chandra Mohanty, "mainstream" feminist theory is interrogated. Different political and social contexts are examined from the perspectives of writers and theorists that have conventionally been relegated to the margins of literary theory. The experiences of black people all over the world are marginalised and this thesis attempts to examine these texts without assuming that the experiences of the characters are "different" or "other". The first chapter focuses mainly on Morrison' s Song of Solomon but used Vera's Nehanda to comment on some spiritual similarities between an African female character and an African American female character. Chapter two focuses more strongly on African, specifically Zimbabwean, female experience during the second war of independence (or Chimurenga) in Zimbabwe. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Solomon, maar maak gebruik van Vera se Nehanda om Die tesis analiseer vier hooftekste vanuit die perspektief van swart, vroulike ervaring. Die tekste is Yvonne Vera se Nehanda en. Without a Name, sowel as Toni Morrison se Song of Solomon en Beloved. Hierdie vier romans word vergelyk. en ook, met die hulp van geselekteerde werke van verskeie teoretici soos bell hooks en Chandra Mohanty, geanaliseer in 'n poging om "hoofstroom" feministiese teorie krities te benader. Verskillende sosiaal-politiese kontekste word ondersoek, spesifiek vanuit die perspektiewe van skrywers en teoretici wat konvensioneel gesproke gereduseer is tot die marges van literere teorie. Teen die agtergrond van die gemarginaliseerde ervaringe van swart mense regoor die wereld, probeer die tesis om hierdie tekste te analiseer sonder om te aanvaar dat die ervaringe van die karakters "verskillend" of "anders" is. Die eerste hoofstuk fokus hoofsaaklik op Morrison se Song of kommentaar te lewer op die spirituele ooreenkomste tussen 'n swart vroulike karakter uit Afrika en 'n Afro-Amerikaanse vroulike karakter. Hoofstuk twee fokus skerper op 'n Afrika, en spesifiek Zimbabwiese, vroulike ervaring gedurende die tweede onafhanklikheidsoorlog in daardie land.

The main purpose of this study is to discuss Yvonne Vera‟s representation of various aspects of women‟s identity in a patriarchal and colonial context as they manifest themselves through the women‟s relationships. I explore ways in which the question of self for some of Vera‟s women seems characterised by marginalisation across racial, cultural, ethnic and generational divides. The short stories and novel studied seem to emphasise that for women, under patriarchy and colonialism in Zimbabwe, seeking an independent and fulfilling identity seems to be interpreted as defying society‟s expectations and dictates. However, even as Vera tells of the various women‟s failure to make breakthroughs, she points at a less gender- inflexible future where both men and women will be valued for their true worth, and not their mere biology, through foregrounding the women‟s stories as they challenge and subvert their societies‟ received norms, traditions and values. / English / M.A. (English)

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91) / My thesis focuses on the representation of marginalized voices and trauma in the selected fiction of Tsitsi Dangarembga and Yvonne Vera. I analyze three novels written by the Yvonne Vera—Without a Name (1994), Under the Tongue(1996) and The Stone Virgins(2002) set during the Zimbabwe liberation struggle period and postcolonial Zimbabwe dissident era respectively and Nervous Conditions(1988) and its sequel, The Book of Not (1996), by Dangarembga set during the 1960s to 1970s colonial Rhodesia period (the colonial name for Zimbabwe) and during the period of white‐minority rule in Rhodesia to the attainment of independence in 1980. I analyze these novels from the feminist/womanist, gender and postcolonial literary models. The rational for grouping these theoretical models in the analysis in this thesis is that they commonly highlight from a gender perspective the complex factors which oppress and marginalize women in the colonial and postcolonial contexts in which the two authors set their writings. These literary paradigms highlight the oppression of women from an African perspective and all acknowledge the need to address all factors which oppress and subordinate women (gender, race, class) if total emancipation for them is to be achieved. I also posit that Vera and Dangarembga offer discourses that challenge the silencing of narratives of oppression and violation in their novels selected for analysis in this thesis. The thesis has five chapters. In Chapter 1, I set out the argument of the thesis and give a brief history of gendered colonialism and the historical period which provides a setting for the fiction of the two authors. Next, I describe the conceptual framework I will use in analyzing the works of the two postcolonial Zimbabwe female writers. Then I will outline the research questions and hypothesis and expose the research methodology and approach that will serve as my vehicle for data collection, analysis and interpretation. In Chapter 2, I will focus on gender, class and race and discuss the ways Dangarembga explores these factors in Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not. I will also discuss innovate ways women explore to champion their freedom and voice in the fiction of Dangarembga. Chapter 3 focuses on the novels of Yvonne Vera— Without a Name, Under the Tongue and The stone Virgins —which articulate narratives of violated subjects and silenced voices. I will discuss the ways Vera explores to show how narratives of violated subjects are silenced by patriarchy, colonialism and masculine narratives of nationalism in these novels. Chapter 4 focuses on narratives of trauma. Using theories of trauma, I will analyze Without a Name, Under the Tongue and The Stone Virgins by Vera and show how these narratives articulate colonial and postcolonial trauma and female child trauma. I will also discuss The Book of Not by Dangarembga and show how the novel articulates colonial and racial trauma. My discussion of the novels of Vera and Dangarembga in this chapter will show that these novels work out traumatic experiences in the colonial and postcolonial eras and will also reveal the challenges of representing tra / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this document / Thesis (DLitt (English))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / English / unrestricted