Spectral Citizenry: Reflections of the ‘Post-transitional’ in Contemporary South African Literature

Abstract

In this article I analyse the structural representations of death in a selection of contemporary South African novels. In my chosen texts, characters are brought into a close relation to death by having to bear witness to the passing of a parent or relative. Instead of placing emphasis on processes of mourning, these novels utilise melancholic frameworks to mark a discursive shift towards spectrality. I argue that this shift is representative of a ‘post-transitional’ ideology that no longer views itself in terms of radical alterity – as the emphasis on the ‘new’ in early post-apartheid South Africa did – but which instead allows for more fluid appraisals of national development and civil hospitality.