South African Gothic

Abstract

The period following the second decade of the millennium has witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of Gothic forms in what is frequently called ‘post-transitional’ South African fiction. Readily identifiable in the work of young writers in particular, these should be understood as an enunciation of real anxiety breeding in the postapartheid nation. The fall of apartheid marks South Africa’s postcolonial incorporation into a neoliberal world order, and the disorientation and unease of these circumstances is appearing in the fiction of South Africa’s new millennium in uneasy, indeed Gothic forms. This chapter outlines key dimensions of this millennial South African Gothic, focusing specifically on emerging speculative production in diverse media, including short fiction, graphic narrative, literary periodicals and film.