The worlds of fiction that are never quite what we label them
This talk by Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu, takes inspiration from the South African writer Phaswane Mpe.
Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu is a Junior Research Fellow in African and Comparative Literature at St Anne's College, University of Oxford. He is guest curator of the exhibition, Africa at the Fair, using the Publishing in Africa special collections in the Oxford Brookes University Library.
This talk takes inspiration from the South African writer Phaswane Mpe who was a graduate of Oxford Brookes University and only published one book in his lifetime, Welcome to our Hillbrow, set in the early years of post apartheid South Africa but the narrative also traverses to Oxford. In his novel Mpe suggests opportunities where African-language literature could become a “sanctuary” of freedom for the individual and also a contribution to important discussions of life in Africa. Taking this provocation, Tinashe will offer a contemporary reading of the state and directions African literature has been taking since 2000.