Postcolonial Pomosexuality: Queer/ Alternative Fiction after "Disgrace"

Abstract

In this essay I begin by contextualising South African queer/alternative writing against a global postcolonial backdrop. I examine the representation of queer in Coetzee’s Disgrace, and outline a cluster of attributes which are absent in that text, but which are present in texts published after 2000: queer sexuality viewed with interior depth, a coming-out narrative, the normalisation of queer, progressive engagement with gender issues, and technical innovation. I analyse a range of texts by male and female authors which exemplify these features of postcolonial pomosexuality, paying particular attention to works by K Sello Duiker, Barbara Adair, Jane Bennett and Lauren Beukes.