Don't Compartmentalize Writers, Chenjerai Hove Tells Academia
Chenjerai Hove, a Zimbabwean writer who is currently the 2007-08 International Writers Program visiting fellow at Brown University, has stated that academia should regard all writers as primarily writers without obsessing with compartmentalizing them into categories like 'post-colonial, African, Indian, Latin American". Hove argues that when he writes, he is not thinking of himself as practising postcoloniality or Africanness; he approaches his subject from the vantage point of a writer at work, a writer who happens to be from Africa, who happens to be presenting to the world a specificity of subject matter that the work of art enables.
Speaking at the Under the Tongue workshop in Brown Univerisity's Watson Insitute, Hove said, "Academia becomes a business of creating compartments so people can become comfortable... As a writer I write stories... The job of the writer is to write well." He also criticised bookstores for creating meaningless categories for literature from "the other", little concealed sections showing African, or Indian, or Chinese literature, for instance. He wants to see all literatures receive equal exposure on the shelf, without the compartmentalization into hidden shelf corners.
Chenjerai Hove the author of four novels: Bones, Shadows, Ancestors, and Masimba Avanhu?. He has written three volumes of poetry, books of essays, and articles as a freelance journalist. Widely regarded as a leading figure of post-colonial Zimbabwean literature, he has been the recipient of honors including a 1987 Zimbabwe Writing Award, a 1989 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and a 2001 German-Afrika Award for contributing to freedom of expression through his work as a newspaper columnist. He was a founder and board member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, and from 1984 to 1992 was president of the Zimbabwe Writers Union. Hove has lived in exile since 2001.
Of course, Hove's international awards show the few benefits of the compartmentalization of literatures. To win a Noma Award, or the Commonwealth Writers's prize, a writer has to fit within some of these compartments created by the sponsors of the awards, and Hove's awards have been linked to his representation of some aspects of African writing. However, Hove seems to be highlighting the idea that in creating their art, writers are not in the business of trying to fit within one of a category, but to use language primarily for the production of art.
Speaking at the Under the Tongue workshop in Brown Univerisity's Watson Insitute, Hove said, "Academia becomes a business of creating compartments so people can become comfortable... As a writer I write stories... The job of the writer is to write well." He also criticised bookstores for creating meaningless categories for literature from "the other", little concealed sections showing African, or Indian, or Chinese literature, for instance. He wants to see all literatures receive equal exposure on the shelf, without the compartmentalization into hidden shelf corners.
Chenjerai Hove the author of four novels: Bones, Shadows, Ancestors, and Masimba Avanhu?. He has written three volumes of poetry, books of essays, and articles as a freelance journalist. Widely regarded as a leading figure of post-colonial Zimbabwean literature, he has been the recipient of honors including a 1987 Zimbabwe Writing Award, a 1989 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and a 2001 German-Afrika Award for contributing to freedom of expression through his work as a newspaper columnist. He was a founder and board member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, and from 1984 to 1992 was president of the Zimbabwe Writers Union. Hove has lived in exile since 2001.
Of course, Hove's international awards show the few benefits of the compartmentalization of literatures. To win a Noma Award, or the Commonwealth Writers's prize, a writer has to fit within some of these compartments created by the sponsors of the awards, and Hove's awards have been linked to his representation of some aspects of African writing. However, Hove seems to be highlighting the idea that in creating their art, writers are not in the business of trying to fit within one of a category, but to use language primarily for the production of art.
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