South African Crime Fiction and the Narration of the Post-Apartheid. Elizabeth Fletcher a Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment Of
South African Crime Fiction and the Narration of the Post-apartheid. Elizabeth Fletcher A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magister Artium, in the Department of English Studies, University of the Western Cape. Supervisor Professor Duncan Brown October 2013 Key words South African Crime Fiction and the Narration of the Post-apartheid. Crime fiction South Africa Post-apartheid Narrative Genre Status quo Disruption Resolution Catharsis Representation Popular culture Abstract South African Crime Fiction and the Narration of the Post-apartheid. Elizabeth Fletcher Master’s Thesis, Department of English Studies, University of the Western Cape. In this dissertation, I consider how South African crime fiction, which draws on a long international literary history, engages with the conventions and boundaries of the genre, and how it has adapted to the specific geographical, social, political and historical settings of South Africa. A key aspect of this research is the work’s temporal setting. I will focus on local crime fiction which is set in contemporary South Africa as this enables me to engage with current perceptions of South Africa, depicted by contemporary local writers. My concern is to explore how contemporary South African crime fiction narrates post-apartheid South Africa. Discussing Margie Orford’s Daddy’s Girl and the possibilities of South African feminist crime fiction, my argument shoes how Orford narrates post-apartheid through the lens of the oppression and abuse of women. The next chapter looks at Roger Smith’s thriller Mixed Blood. Smith presents the bleakest outlook for South Africa and I show how, even though much of his approach may appear to be ‘radical’, the nihilism in his novel shows a deep conservatism.
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