The University of Zimbabwe Department of English’s Dambudzo Marechera (2013–2018)

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I discuss the personal (autobiographical), literary and political relationship between Dambudzo Marechera’s texts, the University of Zimbabwe’s then Department of English and my own development as an early career scholar. This relationship went beyond academia. Through a reflection on the various pedagogical approaches used by the department’s lecturing staff, I arrive at Marechera’s lasting literary legacy vis a vis the implications of ideological readings of literature in Zimbabwe. Marechera’s The House of Hunger, specifically, reveals the ideologies that are constantly employed in the reading of Zimbabwean Literature, which in turn, reveals the patriotism litmus test to which every aspect of Zimbabwean life is subject. The approaches impeded and facilitated critical readings to various degrees. I will argue that Marechera’s text’s stylistic and thematic concerns which traversed the literary, political, and autobiographical terrains complicated some of the readings and invited the microscopic scrutiny to which both the author and his work were subjected. Essentially, I discuss the identity and processes of identity making that revealed themselves in the reading of The House of Hunger and how all of these have impacted my own development as a young academic.