Abstract
Considering literature as a system in dialogue with non-literary systems, this article
discusses the ways in which white writing in Zimbabwe finds itself marginalised from
mainstream Zimbabwean literature owing to monological approaches which see the
literary system as uniform, static and closed. Feeding from, and into, political, media
and literary discourses on belonging, these approaches accomplish the nucleation of
the system by imposing various forms of nuclei in the form of Rhodesian/colonial
sensibilities and allegiances which white writing supposedly has. While it is true that
some white narratives exhibit strong affinities towards the colonial past, it should also
be noted that such narratives are only part of the system and resultantly the system
should not in any way be reducible to this or any other segment. Enucleation is
proffered as an alternative conceptualisation of the literary and cultural system in that
it redeems systems from the demands of sameness and stasis. The place white writing
occupies in Zimbabwe’s post-2000 cultural landscape, for instance, serves to illustrate
how questions of memory and heritage always involve the intertwining of several
cultural forces.