Portraits of South African Women in Lauren Beukes’ Writings

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study some of Lauren Beukes’ feminine characters and to draw a parallel between them and some famous South African personalities presented in her non-fiction work Maverick: Extraordinary Women from South Africa’s Past. To this end, I will analyse three of her novels, Moxyland (2008), Zoo City (2010) and The Shining Girls (2012), in order to draw attention to the part played by South African women in Apartheid and post-Apartheid society.

Keywords

• apartheid legacy
• discrimination
• south african women
• survivors
• victims