Public and private space in contemporary South Africa: perspectives from post-apartheid literature

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Periodical article

Title:	Public and private space in contemporary South Africa: perspectives from post-apartheid literature
Author:	Penfold, Tom
Year:	2012
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1465-3893)
Volume:	38
Issue:	4
Pages:	993-1006
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	literature urban environment space literary criticism
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2012.751182
Abstract:	Starting from a reading of Damon Galgut's The Good Doctor, this article examines the changing nature of social space in South Africa since 1994 as reflected in recent writing by Galgut, Ivan Vladislavic, Jonny Steinberg, K.S. Duiker and J.M. Coetzee. Adapting Mikael Karlström's distinction between 'dystopian' and 'eutopian' responses to social phenomena, the author argues that postapartheid literature bears witness to the perpetuation of a fundamentally dystopian society. South Africa, by these lights, has seen no significant opening up and making public of space either physically or otherwise. Discussing the urban environment, crime, xenophobia, gender relations and sexuality, the article shows that power remains in the private sphere, with space still constructed in terms of exclusion rather than inclusion. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]