Most of Charles Mungoshi’s fiction was written within a context of militaristic masculinities pre- and post-independent Zimbabwe, when the strong and healthy male body was valorised in Zimbabwean writing and life. His portrayal of men with physical infirmities, particularly spinal injuries, challenges the Chimurenga (war of liberation) rhetoric with its hypermasculine script that privileges the tough and healthy male body in service of the family and nation. Mungoshi’s calling on the corporeality of men’s bodies and the limits of physical ability exposes the conflicts and anxieties of maleness at a time when such “unmanning” was problematic and continues to be for some critics of Zimbabwean literature. Such critics view Mungoshi’s focus on men with infirmities as devoid of literary value, pessimistic, of little value to the liberation struggle and nation-building in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Yet through the trope of male bodily incapacitation, this paper argues, Mungoshi challenges a masculinism that demands that men should have strong bodies they can deploy to control familial and national space. By paying attention to the two languages that Mungoshi wrote in – English and Shona – this paper unpacks one of Mungoshi’s least acknowledged but most telling contributions to Zimbabwean writing – images of male infirmity that attempt to re-envision Zimbabwean masculinities.

Charles Mungoshi 的大部分小说都是在津巴布韦独立前后的军国主义男子气概的背景下写成的，当时强健的男性身体在津巴布韦的写作和生活中得到了重视。他对身体虚弱的男性的描绘，特别是脊椎受伤的男性，以其超阳刚的剧本挑战了 Chimurenga（解放战争）的修辞，它赋予强健而健康的男性身体为家庭和国家服务的特权。Mungoshi 对男性身体的肉体性和身体能力的限制的呼吁，在这种“无人化”是有问题的时候暴露了男性的冲突和焦虑，并且仍然是津巴布韦文学的一些批评家。此类评论家认为 Mungoshi 对身体虚弱的男性的关注缺乏文学价值、悲观、对后殖民时期津巴布韦的解放斗争和国家建设毫无价值。然而，本文认为，通过男性身体丧失能力的比喻，Mungoshi 挑战了一种男性主义，这种男性主义要求男性应该拥有强壮的身体，可以用来控制家庭和国家空间。通过关注 Mungoshi 所用的两种语言——英语和绍纳语——本文解开了 Mungoshi 对津巴布韦写作最不为人知但最有说服力的贡献之一——试图重新设想津巴布韦男子气概的男性虚弱形象。