Abstract
In this article I engage with literary representation to argue that although Paul Chidyausiku intended to display the functions of Zimbabwean traditional dance in his re-imagined precolonial Shona society of the novella Broken Roots (1984), he ends up unconsciously suggesting its dysfunctions as well. The paper draws on the functionalist approach and the dysfunctional theory to interpret both the positive and negative connotations surrounding the represented performance contexts. In his recreated early society, Chidyausiku configures dance as performing either decolonial, socialisation, celebratory or gender roles, among others. The article, however, finds Chidyausiku’s overall depiction of the performing society as sometimes ambivalent, thus implying his conflicting conceptualisation of both his African society and the cultural phenomena, including dance, imbedded within it.
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