Expounding the Nama-Herero genocide of 1904-1908: A cognitive metaphor approach
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of the University of Namibia Language Centre
Abstract
This study examines four literary texts about the Nama-Herero genocide in Namibia through the application of the Cognitive Stylistics Theory as a framework for analysis. The texts, namely, Lauri Kubuitsile’s ‘The Scattering’ (2016), Jaspar D. Utley’s ‘Lie of the Land’ (2017), Rukee Tjingaete’s ‘The Weeping Graves of our Ancestors’ (2017) and Zirk van den Berg’s ‘Parts Unknown’ (2018),were chosen because they (re)present fictionalised historical accounts of the Nama-Herero genocide, which took place from 1904-1908, where over 65,000 Ovaherero and 10,000 Nama persons were killed in what is regarded as the first genocide of the twentieth century. The study promotes new insights into (re)imagining the genocidal trauma, depicted as collective cultural memory in Namibian literary works through the lenses of explications of cognitive stylistics. The study is significant in that it promotes new ways of reading, understanding and interpretating the historical experiences of the genocide. Cognitive Stylistics argues that any particular situation [in a literary text] can be interpreted in different ways. Interpretations from nuanced readings of the texts evince that themes in the texts largely centre on the inherited trauma of the natives’ experiences of the genocide during this period of colonial occupation and encounter, passed down generationally as collective historical memory. This was achieved through the examination of these literary imaginaries through the use of cognitive metaphor, genocidal trauma, and mental and physical oppression. It was concluded that reading, analysing and schematising genocidal fictional works can reflect new and insightful ways of understanding and appreciating historical memory and experiences of trauma.
Description
Published journal article
Keywords
Cognitive metaphor, cognitive stylistics, fictional narrative, Namibia, Nama-Herero genocide, Schema Theory
Citation
Hafeni, L., Sabao, C., & Woldemariam, H. Z. (2024). Expounding the Nama-Herero genocide of 1904-1908: A cognitive metaphor approach. Journal of the University of Namibia Language Centre, 9(1), 17-30.