A Postcolonial Reading of Novuya Tshuma's House of Stone

Abstract

The current paper attempts to investigate postcolonial concepts in Zimbabwean writer, Novuya Tshuma’s debut novel, House of Stone (2018). The present study is built on the theoretical framework of Homi K. Bhabha who, in his, collected writings titled The Location of Culture (1994) mentioned key elements of postcolonial criticism like an identity crisis, othering, mimicry and hybridity. The textual analysis method has been applied to analyse the relevant text objectively. Findings suggest that the above postcolonial concepts like an identity crisis, othering/otherness, mimicry and hybridity are vividly available and have been objectively analyzed. Moreover, the novelist uses an ample amount of figure of speech (simile, metaphor, personification and oxymoron) to carry forward the story in a literary manner. In addition to the above aspects, the concept of feminism is found in an African setting, the character of Thandi promotes feminism through her words and action.