Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society
In this study, I reread George Orwell’s remarkable text Animal Farm together with Noviolet Bulawayo’s second novel, titled Glory. Orwell’s allegoric novel remains astute in its account of the fate of living under the shadow of an autocratic state whose leadership is haunted by the paranoia of losing...
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2024-12-01
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| author | Esther Mavengano |
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| description | In this study, I reread George Orwell’s remarkable text Animal Farm together with Noviolet Bulawayo’s second novel, titled Glory. Orwell’s allegoric novel remains astute in its account of the fate of living under the shadow of an autocratic state whose leadership is haunted by the paranoia of losing power. Orwell deploys symbolic animals, including dogs, hens, pigs, horses, sheep and donkeys, to function as salient embodiments permeated with figurative meanings about a corrupt regime which lashes out at its victims. I deploy Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of bare life, homo sacer, state of exception and suspension of law in reading the Zimbabwe electoral politics and biopolitical imaginings of the postcolonial state. I foreground contemporary power mechanisms, unruly manifestation and performativity on the body and mind of the homo sacer(s). I also interrogate the Napoleon forms of power exercised by state ‘security agents’ – renamed growling dogs and defenders in modern Zimbabwe. I conclude that biopolitical power, in an environment where the exception has become the rule, serves in the management of perturbed citizens.
Contribution: Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitical conceptual framework has rarely been used to examine the intricate and often paradoxical relations between those in power (rulers) and ordinary citizens (the ruled) in present-day Zimbabwe. This study brings to attention spectacles of power, the fate of homo sacer figures and their conviviality – as central tropes complexly enunciated and thematised in both Orwell and Bulawayo’s fictional writings. The parallel analyses of the two novels from different historical periods and literary traditions in this study offer fresh reflections on the complexities that arise from living under autocratic rule. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0258-2279 2219-8237 |
| language | Afrikaans |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
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| spelling | doaj-art-8baca795264d421b9be5535e1b68d1ef2024-12-18T12:42:36ZafrAOSISLiterator0258-22792219-82372024-12-01451e1e910.4102/lit.v45i1.20581444Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian societyEsther Mavengano0Research Institute for Theology and Religion, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa; Department of English, Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies, English and American Studies Technische Universitat Dresden, Dresden, Germany; and Department of English and Media Studies, Faculty of Arts, Great Zimbabwe University, MasvingoIn this study, I reread George Orwell’s remarkable text Animal Farm together with Noviolet Bulawayo’s second novel, titled Glory. Orwell’s allegoric novel remains astute in its account of the fate of living under the shadow of an autocratic state whose leadership is haunted by the paranoia of losing power. Orwell deploys symbolic animals, including dogs, hens, pigs, horses, sheep and donkeys, to function as salient embodiments permeated with figurative meanings about a corrupt regime which lashes out at its victims. I deploy Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of bare life, homo sacer, state of exception and suspension of law in reading the Zimbabwe electoral politics and biopolitical imaginings of the postcolonial state. I foreground contemporary power mechanisms, unruly manifestation and performativity on the body and mind of the homo sacer(s). I also interrogate the Napoleon forms of power exercised by state ‘security agents’ – renamed growling dogs and defenders in modern Zimbabwe. I conclude that biopolitical power, in an environment where the exception has become the rule, serves in the management of perturbed citizens. Contribution: Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitical conceptual framework has rarely been used to examine the intricate and often paradoxical relations between those in power (rulers) and ordinary citizens (the ruled) in present-day Zimbabwe. This study brings to attention spectacles of power, the fate of homo sacer figures and their conviviality – as central tropes complexly enunciated and thematised in both Orwell and Bulawayo’s fictional writings. The parallel analyses of the two novels from different historical periods and literary traditions in this study offer fresh reflections on the complexities that arise from living under autocratic rule.https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2058agamben’s biopolitical theorisationanimal farmgrowling dogsmenacing defendersnapoleon powersuspension of lawzimbabwean literature |
| spellingShingle | Esther Mavengano Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society Literator agamben’s biopolitical theorisation animal farm growling dogs menacing defenders napoleon power suspension of law zimbabwean literature |
| title | Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society |
| title_full | Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society |
| title_fullStr | Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society |
| title_full_unstemmed | Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society |
| title_short | Biopolitical rulership and motifs in Bulawayo’s Glory: A Zimbabwean version of Orwellian society |
| title_sort | biopolitical rulership and motifs in bulawayo s glory a zimbabwean version of orwellian society |
| topic | agamben’s biopolitical theorisation animal farm growling dogs menacing defenders napoleon power suspension of law zimbabwean literature |
| url | https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/2058 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT esthermavengano biopoliticalrulershipandmotifsinbulawayosgloryazimbabweanversionoforwelliansociety |