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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Nature and identity in the poetry of Bart Wolffe |
Author: | Mthatiwa, Syned |
Year: | 2014 |
Periodical: | Research in African Literatures (ISSN 0034-5210) |
Volume: | 45 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 70-88 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
Subjects: | poetry Whites literary criticism |
About person: | Bart Wolffe (1952-2016) |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v045/45.4.mthatiwa.pdf |
Abstract: | The poetry of Bart Wolffe, the self-exiled white Zimbabwean writer, exposes the role of the environment and life experiences in the shaping of identity. For Wolffe, nature signifies refuge, tranquility, and harmony; it is a sanctuary, more accommodating than the violent and harsh human society. In this paper, the author advances the argument that a reading of Wolffe's poetry shows that he uses nature to construct his identity and belonging and as a means of self-definition, that is, of trying to make sense of himself. But his project of belonging and identity construction in postcolonial Zimbabwe is somehow complicated by his whiteness or positionality. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |