Rewriting Abject Spaces and Subjectivities in Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City

Abstract

This examination of Zoo City (2010) by Lauren Beukes calls for a re-imagining of denigrated South African urban spaces and their inhabitants. Drawing primarily on the work of Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler, it investigates the making of abject spaces and subjectivities, suggesting that novels such as Beukes’s might allow for readers to see anew so-called slums such as inner-city Hillbrow. It proposes that readers might come to know such spaces and subjectivities more intimately, bringing otherwise marginalised characters and their urban spaces more sharply into focus. This analysis of Beukes’s novel considers the role of “ex-centric” fiction, fiction that challenges privileged centres of “belonging.” Ultimately, this paper explores the potential for resistance such literature might have in the face of the dehumanising impact of othering and abjectification in post-apartheid South Africa.