Douglas Kaze:

Douglas Kaze is from from Nigeria and his areas of interest include postcolonial studies, ecocriticism and creative writing. Douglas Kaze is currently studying the poetry of South African poet, Arthur Nortje (1942-1970). Employing a palette of ecocritical and postcolonial theories, his focus is the portrayal of the physical environment in the poetry as it intersects with the poet’s sense of historical and spatial displacement. Douglas Kaze is supervised by Professor Dirk Klopper, and he is a beneficiary of the Mellon Focus Area Scholarship.

Kudzai Barure:

Kudzai Barure is currently reading for a doctoral degree under the Urban Connections in African Popular Imaginaries (UCAPI) research project. His research interests focus on Popular Culture, Digital short-fiction, and New modes of writing.

His study focuses on the representations of everyday life in selected Zimbabwean popular short fiction written and or translated into English by marginalised writers who exist on the periphery of the Zimbabwean literary canon. It demonstrates how fictional representations of everyday life are used by marginalized authors to inventively resist and interrogate themes such as  sexuality, inequality, violence, crime, migration, corruption, nepotism. The thesis examines short fiction published in popular print magazines and on digital platforms such as blogs and Facebook.  This research falls within the ambit of popular culture and literature. Kudzai draws on Stephanie Newell and Onookome Okome's episteme of everyday life to argue that popular short-fiction provides a platform for marginalised writers to express themselves in ways that respond directly to social, political, and economic issues. 

Last Modified: Sun, 21 Jan 2024 06:08:28 SAST