Same Old Sun, New Shadows: A Postcolonial and Feminist Reading of Yvonne Vera’s The Stone Virgins

Abstract

The article examines the extent to which Vera’s The Stone Virgins can be read as a historiography of post-independence Zimbabwe. Some scholars accuse Vera in The Stone Virgins for fanning tribal friction, polarizing the nation and subverting the official war narrative. Our primary purpose is to explore the text to foreground the subtle discursive strategies as the text comments on the national historiography of Zimbabwe as a postcolonial nation-state. The article attempts to ascertain whether the textual narrative is ‘like the sun’, whether the text candidly offers alternative narrative by way of ‘writing in’ the elided aspects of the postcolonial experience (telling it blunt), or it subtly negotiates for the right to remember, heal and belong (telling it slant). The present article is therefore guided by two objectives, that is, to explore whether Vera’s The Stone Virgins can be regarded as historiography of post-independent Zimbabwe and also to examine whether the novel negotiates for closure and healing or simply opens up old wounds to fan social strife and polarity.