‘Deviant’ innovations in Zimbabwean writing: From the racial divide to same sex desire

Abstract

Since its inception in the colonial era, Zimbabwean writing has produced works which challenge officially accepted attitudes towards race, gender and/or sexuality. This article performs readings of four key post-independence texts which question established boundaries by problematizing ‘deviant’ desire. It shows how Dambudzo Marechera's Mindblast is path-breaking in its representations of interracial sex, and how the recent work of Shimmer Chinodya can be said to follow in Marechera's wake. Texts by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo and Nevanji Madanhire, on the other hand, move into the area of gender transgression, thus further destabilizing officially codified claims to ‘natural authority’.