Theorizing discourses of Zimbabwe, 1860-1900 : a Foucauldian analysis of colonial narratives.
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Date
1998
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Abstract
This study seeks to understand colonial narratives of Zimbabwe 1860-1900
as a locus of transgression and opposition. I investigate the range and
complexity of discourses within the imperial project open to both European
male and female writers, their shifts over time or within one or more texts.
Narratives of the explorer, missionary, hunter and soldier are examined as a
literary genre in which attempts were made to re-imagine the Western self
through an encounter with Africans. I consider how positions from which
the European in the colonies could speak and write were reformulated. This
study will employ Foucauldian discourse theory in an analysis of the British
'civilizing mission' in Central Southern Africa.
The Introduction examines existing historical and theoretical
approaches in this field and argues for a particular use of Foucualt's insights
and vocabulary. Chapter One is concerned with the way European explorers
constituted notions of 'civilized nations' in Europe and 'primitive tribes' in
Africa . I then question how this process of division and exclusion was
reinforced by the mythography of an EI Dorado in the African interior. In
Chapter Two I consider how Colonial Man was constituted in different ways
by Victorian discourses of adventure, travel and conquest. I also attempt to
account for the effects that followed the activation, within colonial culture,
of structures of exclusion and division based on race or class. Chapter
Three focuses on the economic dimension of a dissident LMS missionary and
the sustained resistance to Western philanthropy among the Ndebele. I also
examine the later Mashonaland mission where the missionary-administrator
became instrumental in the division and control of Africans. In the final
chapter I consider discursive formations which sought to constrain African
resistance during the 1896-7 Chimurenga and the institutionalization of a
settler order in the post-Chimurenga era.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.
Keywords
Baines, Thomas, 1820-1875., Discourse analysis, Narrative., Zimbabwe in literature., Foucault, Michel--Contributions in criticism., Mauch, Carl., Imperialism in literature., Literature and anthropology., Theses--English., Travellers' writings, English--History and criticism., English prose literature--19th century--History and criticism.