Bare life and subjectivity in post-Independence era
The figure of homo sacer in selected Southern African narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6030621 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Esther Mavengano (0000-0003-2499-4508, Great Zimbabwe University), Paul Nepapleh Nkamta (0000-0003-1301-1326, North-West University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 351-365 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Identities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14725843.2022.2028602 |
| OpenAlex | W4205102547 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 6 |
The demise of Apartheid and colonialism in South Africa and Zimbabwe ushered in hope among the masses, who expected transformation to improve their economic, political and social conditions. However, context and history conspired to orchestrate persistent suffering, uncertainty and existential angst, which find expression in literary works. Drawing from Agamben’s concept of biopolitics, we interrogate fictional representations of economic and socio-political conditions in post-apartheid South Africa and post-independent Zimbabwe. We analyse how writers portray post-colonial conditions, as shaping and creating the figure of homo Sacer. The study focuses on Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope, Mhlongo’s After Tears and Moele’s Room 207, to assess how writers portray the post-independence subject, as embodying precarity in spaces that ought to have afforded them dignity and hope. The Foucault-Agamben connection and Mbembe’s notions of conviviality and necropolitics are used to explain the deplorable conditions of citizens. The texts convey ambiguities and paradoxes generated from sovereign power that have the potential to reduce citizens and non-citizens to a naked existence. The novels satirise and subvert sovereign power for poor governance, corruption and political betrayal, which have bred anxiety, disillusionment, inequalities, marginalisation and poverty among ordinary people, as summed up in Agamben’s notion of bare life
Aesthetics · Biopower · Colonialism · Dignity · Existentialism · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · State of exception · Subjectivity · African cultural and philosophical studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South African History and Culture
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |