dc.description.abstract |
The traumatic atmosphere characterized by power manipulations and its destructive
aftermath that runs through the selected five novels; Nehanda, Without a Name,
Under the Tongue, Butterfly Burning, and The Stone Virgins, has prompted this study
to address the narrative complexities of trauma, desperation, bitterness, and painful
circumstances through which power discourse unfolds to expose the predicament of
both men and women in colonial Zimbabwe. Vera‘s deployment of such strategies
depicts oppressed people who will do anything to reverse their circumstances in order
to realize their freedom and independence. The study investigates the extent of the
impact of power as exerted through the subversive narratives employed by Vera‘s
characters in their attempts to reverse their oppressive situations. It seeks to find out
the possibilities of an integrative effect of power appropriation on the character‘s
actions. The study is premised on the assumption that power is appropriated and
exercised in order to liberate and achieve goals. The study is guided by various
strands of the feminism perspectives whose key tenet states that ̳all people, women,
and men are politically, socially and economically equal‘ and they should be validated
as individuals and not groups (Bressler, 2007:182). This tenet is crucial in the
understanding of the discourse that motivates the deployment of the subversive
narratives as strategies of resisting oppression and of self-empowerment. The study
also relies on Michel Foucault‘s perspectives on power to understand its role, use, and
impact. It employs a qualitative research methodology that enables the identification
of the character‘s subversive actions, motivations, and impact. It establishes that the
discourse of power in Vera‘s novels centers primarily on the problematic issues of
oppression, domination, and subordination by both colonial and patriarchy to
represent the historical suffering of the people of Zimbabwe. This stance provides the
reader with important background information and context for an appropriate
understanding of the texts. The deployment of the colonial narratives, especially on
the men, serves to explain the predicament of the women as they suffer both the
colonial projected oppression as well as that of patriarchy. The chapters include an
introduction that provides an anchor to the study, chapter two: the female body as the
site of power manipulations, which explores the politics of sex and race against the
backdrop of colonial evils and patriarchal domination. Chapter three: the subversive
narratives as strategies of resistance that interrogates the deviant social acts as exuded
by Vera‘s female characters in their quest for freedom. Chapter four: colonial
subjugated male which focuses on Vera‘s male characters whose frustration is the
cause of the double suffering of female characters, while the fifth chapter discusses
the nature of power as a paradox. Chapter six provides the conclusion, findings and
recommendations. The study concludes that an appropriation of power and its
manipulation through deviant social acts as strategies for self-empowerment is
counterproductive and, therefore, should not suffice as a transformative possibility for
the re-enactment of a lived life. It validates the study‘s question as to whether there is
an integrative effect of power appropriation on the character‘s actions. This research
contributes to the author‘s concern with the subversive narratives as strategies of
resistance and the subsequent empowerment by establishing that they only give short-
lived self-gratification as a prelude to self-destruction which is a contradiction to
conventional expectation, what this study refers to as The paradox of power. The
research has also pointed to a new trajectory in the understanding of power narratives.
It concludes that Vera traces the genesis of power manipulations to the characters‘
dehumanizing circumstances and their quest for freedom and relevance. |
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