Representations of Violence in Contemporary South African Fiction

Abstract and Introdcution for a presentation at 'Violence and the Contexts of Hostility, ' global inter-disciplinary conference to be held in Budapest, Hungary in May 2008. There are certain social structures, which are inherently violent. Apartheid by definition promoted ‘apart’ness, created disjunctions, affirmed social gaps and as such it fuelled power struggles, which are the breeding ground of antagonism and hostility. After more than a decade the ghosts of apartheid still loom over Southern Africa. But the degree to which they are responsible for the high crime rate with often callous violence, remains a question. Apartheid, as one of the most recent examples of attempts for social engineering (not new to humanity e.g. Third Reich) was a system, which did not allow for one to keep dignity, in other words a system in which it was impossible to ‘be good ’ – to put it bluntly. The reasons for this do vary according to the peoples of particular groups, colours or tongues. There were perceived senses of honour during apartheid but they were rather manifestations of struggles for power on the one hand as opposed to an asymmetric and often futile yearning for recognition by ‘the others’. This created social tensions, mistrust, fear and guilt whic