The emergence and development of the Shona detective story as a fictional genre in Zimbabwean literature

摘要

This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstreamShona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale anddevelops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller.An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementaryand showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed thedetective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Westernftlms and English detective stories.The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detectivestory manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels itstreatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shonanovel.