The 'dissident' in fiction and non-fiction: history, imagination and the intimate violence of nation-making

Book section : Chapter

The ‘dissident’ is a shape-shifting actor and multi-valent political symbol, cast as both cause and effect of the extreme state repression that followed Zimbabwe’s newly won independence. This ambiguous figure has been taken up in different genres of writing, including history, human rights reporting and literature, and stands as a powerful metonym for the violent making of the nation. But dissidents inhabited fiction and non-fiction differently. For non-fiction writing, establishing authoritative truths in the service of accountability and as a means to challenge dominant official accounts was a paramount concern, while literature worked in a creative space between the events of the past and imagination. The chapter explores the work of three novelists – Chenjerai Hove, Yvonne Vera and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma – both as historical texts that revealed a shifting, malleable conception of the nation and its enemies, and as a form of writing able to challenge the tight strictures of non-fiction accounts. Novelists illuminated above all how the experiences and memories of violent nation-making inhabited the intimate, gendered spaces made among real, imagined, and desired kin.

Authors: Alexander, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Brill
• Host title: The Politics of the Past in Zimbabwe
• Pages: 97-116
• Chapter number: 4
• Series: Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies
• Series number: 35
• Publication date: 2025-04-07
• DOI: 10.1163/9789004728004_006
• ISSN: 1574-6925
• EISBN: 9789004728004
• ISBN: 9789004727991
• Language: English
• Keywords: Gukurahundi; dissident; violence; nation-making; novels; Chenjerai Hove; Yvonne Vera; Novuyo Rosa Tshuma; ZAPU; ZIPRA
• Subtype: Chapter