Johannesburg during the transition in Ivan Vladislavić's ‘The WHITES ONLY Bench’ and The Restless Supermarket1

Abstract

This article analyses two literary representations of Johannesburg in the early 1990s, a period of transition in which the city, like the country as a whole, moved from apartheid into a democratic and post-apartheid era. It draws on critical ideas about the city, postulated by Williams, Pike, Lefebvre and others, to argue that these works show Johannesburg's inhabitants encountering moments of tension, violence and anticipation during the city's transformation. Vladislavić explores his characters’ responses to the unfolding social and political transformation. The article also considers the use of the trope of chaos and disorder in these works, and the subsequent apocalyptic perceptions of some of Vladislavić's urban dwellers in describing some of the city's residential, commercial and public spaces. This is contrasted with alternative perceptions by some characters, who hope for a new prosperous and opened-up city, where new multiracial and meaningful relationships are possible.