Counter-Discourse in Zimbabwean Literature is a study of specific aspects of counter-discursive Zimbabwean narratives in English. In discussing the selected texts, my thesis is based on Terdiman’s ... Show moreCounter-Discourse in Zimbabwean Literature is a study of specific aspects of counter-discursive Zimbabwean narratives in English. In discussing the selected texts, my thesis is based on Terdiman’s (1989) the postcolonial concept of counter-discourse. In Zimbabwean literature challenges to a dominant or established discourse are not just limited to those of the imperial culture, but go beyond to include challenges to the established/dominant discourse in the post independence state. Such other counter-discursive narratives include anti-nationalist, anti-‘patriotic’ and anti-patriarchal narratives. The study is arranged such that in chapter 1I trace the history of counter-discursive narratives in Zimbabwean literature in English, in chapter 2, I study Vera, Nyamubaya and Hove’s selected texts as feminist challenges to masculinist narratives of the liberation struggle. In chapter 3, the state-sponsored Gukurahundi is discussed as one of the crimes that, as Soyinka argues, “constantly provoke memories of the historic wrongs inflicted on the African continent by others” (1999: xxiv). In chapter 4, I focus on how Chinodya’s “Queues”, Chinyani’s “A Land of Starving Millionnaires”, Hoba’s “Specialization”, Chingono’s “Minister without Portfolio” and Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope re-imagine the Third Chimurenga in ways that clearly subvert the state discourse on the Third Chimurenga. Show less
The main question that I address in my thesis is how we can best conceive the contrast between a priori and empirical truths. My response is realist and naturalist in character: I suggest that the... Show moreThe main question that I address in my thesis is how we can best conceive the contrast between a priori and empirical truths. My response is realist and naturalist in character: I suggest that the essential feature of a priori truths is that they consist in the obtaining of some realistically understood conditions in the domain of representations within human heads, rather than in the obtaining of those conditions that they typically purport to be about. This representationist constual cannot be reconciled with the received referentialist understanding of truth. Accordingly, my thesis can be seen as a case against standard referentialism about truth. After a detailed exposition and appropriate generalisation of Benacerraf__s dilemma about mathematical truth, I argue for two major claims. First, I demonstrate that among the most striking characteristics of our paradigm a priori beliefs about causally inert entities there are some, which cannot be suitably explained from a referentialist perspective, so that perspective must be wrong. Second, I argue that if we adopt an alternative, use-theoretic notion of truth, then the suggested representationist construal of apriority can meet all major explanatory adequacy conditions, and thus qualifies as a viable characterisation of the subject. Show less
