Postcolonial Nostalgia: The Ambiguities of White Memoirs of Zimbabwe.

This article introduces the concept of "postcolonial nostalgia" to discuss four memoirs by white expatriate Zimbabweans Alexandra Fuller and Peter Godwin. The authors borrow from colonial discourse, producing nostalgic accounts that may appeal to their Western audiences but which fail to challenge c...

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Published in:History & Memory Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 147 - 181
Main Author: RASCH, ASTRID
Format: Article
Published: Indiana University Press Fall/Winter2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Postcolonial Nostalgia: The Ambiguities of White Memoirs of Zimbabwe.
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        au: RASCH, ASTRID
        affil: Associate Professor of English at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
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        Memoirs
        History of Zimbabwe
        Noncitizens
        Fuller, Alexandra, 1969-
        Godwin, Peter
        White supremacy
        History
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          Memoirs
          History of Zimbabwe
          Noncitizens
          Fuller, Alexandra, 1969-
          Godwin, Peter
          White supremacy
          History
      keyword:
        memoir
        memory politics
        postcolonial nostalgia
        Zimbabwe
      ab: This article introduces the concept of "postcolonial nostalgia" to discuss four memoirs by white expatriate Zimbabweans Alexandra Fuller and Peter Godwin. The authors borrow from colonial discourse, producing nostalgic accounts that may appeal to their Western audiences but which fail to challenge colonial mindsets in the way that their postcolonial self-image might lead us to expect. Written at a time of national crisis in Zimbabwe, the memoirs contrast a past of childhood innocence and settler contributions with a dystopic present. Even as the authors dissociate themselves from the white supremacist regime of the past, they present white settlers as benevolent and productive, and seem to lament the replacement of white order with nothing.
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