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Moments of re-writing? Obert Mpofu's On the Shoulders of Struggle: Memoirs of a Political Insider and the politics of auto/biographical Truths
Abstract
This memoir, as all memoirs from Zimbabwean liberation war heroes do, is a celebration of the history and life of the author - a personal and intimate account of their life from birth, contributions to the liberation war and independent Zimbabwe. As such, it does not preclude itself from criticism of inherent contradictions and accusations of peddling half-truths. We argue here that reading this narrative should be done cognizant of the fact that,
The theory of self-expression that has driven various strands of autobiographical theory assumes that self-identity emerges from a psychic interiority, located somewhere “inside” the narrating subject. There it lies in a state of coherent, unified, evidentiary, even expectant, awaiting transmission to a surface, a tongue, a pen, a keyboard (Smith, 1995, p. 17).
Bourdieu (2000, p.300) cited in Sabao and Javangwe (2018) explains this incongruity that typifies auto/biographical narratives by postulating that the notion self-narration evinces an “inclination toward making oneself the ideologist of one’s own life, through the selection of a few significant events with a view to elucidating an overall purpose” is in itself a controversial and an act of political performativity. And On the Shoulders of Struggle: Memoirs of a Political Insider (2020) is not immune to these vices, and must be read on its own account – of course dialogically as well.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Narratology: An Introduction' provides an introduction and overview of Narratology, a rapidly growing field in the humanities. Literary narratologists have provided many key concepts and analytical tools which are widely used in the interdisciplinary analysis of such narrative features as plot, point of view, speech presentation, ideological perspective and interpretation. The introduction explains the central concepts of narratology, their historical development, and draws together contemporary trends from many different disciplines into common focus. It offers a compendium of the development of narratology from classical poetics to the present.
The aim of this article is to critically analyse the problems of the ideologies of narrativity raised in Joshua Nkomo's autobiography The Story of My Life. When this Zimbabwean version of the book was published in 2001, there were speculations and “gossip” that its contents had been tampered with by the Zimbabwean editor. However, a close comparison with the contents of the first edition published by Methuen of London, revealed that there were no editorial changes that could have prejudiced the depiction of his public image published in Zimbabwe. The Story of My Life documents the details of Nkomo's life from the point of his birth to his life as an immigrant in South Africa, and then a nationalist guerrilla, up to the period of independence from 1980 when he was politically persecuted by Robert Mugabe. This article demonstrates that in attempting to tell the story of his life, Nkomo found himself forced to suppress some facts about the contradictions that he lived in his personal and political life. The article argues that although Nkomo details the pain he suffered in the hands of Robert Mugabe, he could not totally ward off the lure of the dominant ideology that inclined him to explain his political misfortunes in tribal terms. The article suggests that the “fictions” contained in autobiographical works such as Nkomo's story is that they lay claim to the authority of incontestable truth emanating from a single subject position. This perception that Nkomo's book promotes should be questioned because any account of the self is predicated on the suppression of some facts of “other selves”. This irony at the heart of autobiographical writings suggests that the storyteller unconsciously suppresses certain memories which may not “sit” comfortably with the version of personal/national history that a story of selfinscription is forced to authorise.
A critical handbook for understanding this vital literary form. Autobiographical writing is redefining the meaning of narrative, as the recent explosion of memoirs by writers such as Frank McCourt, Mary Karr, Dave Eggers, and Kathryn Harrison suggests. But what's involved in bringing these narratives into the classroom-in creative writing, cultural studies, women's and ethnic studies, and social science and literature courses? How may instructors engage the philosophical, historical, social, and theoretical contexts of the emerging field of autobiography studies? Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, two authorities in life narrative studies distill their diverse forays into life writing in a concise yet far-reaching overview of key terms, issues, histories, and texts in autobiography studies. Reading Autobiography is a step-by-step introduction to the differences of self-narrative from fiction and biography; the components of autobiographical acts; such core concepts as memory, experience, identity, agency, and the body; the textual and critical history of the field; and prospects for future research. Organized as a user-friendly handbook, it includes a glossary of key words, suggestions for teaching, and extensive primary and secondary bibliographies. Sidonie Smith is professor of English and women's studies at the University of Michigan. Julia Watson is associate professor of comparative studies at Ohio State University.
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