Olivier Moreillon Knihy

This study analyses the representation of Durbanite and Capetonian urban spaces in the following selection of post-apartheid works: Mariam Akabor's ''Flat 9'', Rozena Maart's ''Rosa's District Six'', Johan van Wyk's ''Man Bitch'', K. Sello Duiker's ''Thirteen Cents'', Bridget McNulty's ''Strange Nervous Laughter'', and Lauren Beukes' ''Moxyland''. The focus lies on the interrelatedness of shifting post-apartheid subjectivities and urban space (and place) in these literary works. The analysis not only grants access to different ‘new voices` of post-apartheid literature, it also sheds light on the perception of South African history, urban geography, and cultural topography – essentially, on real as well as imagined South African urban spaces – as the literary representations of city-spaces become archives of cultural transformation processes; a gateway to the understanding of the developments and changes of, and within, the two cities in question.

The essays in this volume all circle around questions of urbanisation in (post-)apartheid South Africa and its effects on the country's socio-political realities as well as its representation in, and effect on, the country's literary and artistic production. (South) Africa's continuous urbanisation is expressed in the title of this book: `Cities in Flux'. The contributions account for the constant flow of people (not only into, within, and out of a city, but also between different cities), the continuously changing conditions (both physical and immaterial as well as past and present) of (South) Africa's urban areas, and these shifting conditions' effects on (South) Africa's cities.