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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:African doppelganger: hybridity and identity in the work of Dambudzo Marechera
Author:Buuck, DavidISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Research in African Literatures
Volume:28
Issue:2
Pages:118-131
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subject:literature
About person:Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820447
Abstract:If one considers most of the writings of Dambudzo Marechera (Zimbabwe) as an attempt to articulate the self while simultaneously investigating the problematics of identity and deconstructing the very act of self-articulation, one can see how Marechera represents a unique approach to autobiography. His oeuvre presents a scripting of the self as a constant work-in-progress, using metafictional devices, automatic writing, surrealistic dream sequences, tales-within-tales, etc. to reveal the traces of the process of writing and self-invention. Marechera presents a challenge to the postcolonial approach that focuses on the binarisms of 'centre-periphery', 'self-other' and 'colonizer-colonized' in that he seeks to position himself outside the very boundaries of these debates. His lasting legacy resides not only in his unique articulations of self and the autobiographical, but also in his marginalized class position. As both an exiled Rhodesian and a homeless Zimbabwean, his schizophrenic articulation of postcolonial identity represents an important and unique expression of one of Fanon's 'wretched of the earth'. Bibliogr., notes.
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