Colonial Heterotopia as Metanarrative in White Rhodesian Writing: A Post-millennial Reading of Peter Godwin’s Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.

Abstract

The concept of space, both as metaphor and metonym, is critical to the understanding of the politics of identity construction and expression in white Rhodesian writing. The presence of conceived white spaces and symbols continue to be valorised and celebrated in white Rhodesian writings despite the new political dispensation ushered in  1980, suggesting a deep-seated imagination that continues to inform and nourish white colonial identities. Such imaginations of space can, it will be argued in this article, be interpreted as metanarratives that strive towards self-preservation strategies of white identity and discursive privilege. Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia is used in this discussion as a suitable conceptual framework both to apprehend and destabilise Rhodesian imaginations of privileged spaces in the post-millennial era.

Opsomming

 Die konsep van ruimte, as metafoor sowel as metoniem, is noodsaaklik vir 'n begrip van die politiek van identiteitskonstruksie en -uitdrukking in wit Rhodesiese letterkunde. Ten spyte van die nuwe politieke bedeling wat reeds in 1980 ingelui is, word die bestaan van gekonsipieerde wit ruimtes en simbole steeds in wit Rhodesiese letterkunde gevaloriseer en gevier. Dit dui op diepgewortelde ver-beelding wat wit koloniale identiteite steeds in stand hou en voed. Hierdie artikel voer aan dat sulke verbeeldings van ruimte vertolk kan word as metanarratiewe wat selfbehoudstrategieë van wit identiteit en wydlopige bevoorregting nastreef. Foucalt se konsep “heterotopia” word in die bespreking ingespan as geskikte konseptuele raamwerk om Rhodesiese verbeeldings van bevoorregte ruimtes in die post-millennialistiese era te begryp én af te breek.