Abstract:
In this essay we demonstrate how the burgeoning field of South African crime fiction has
responded to the birth and development of a democratic, post-apartheid South African state. First,
an overview of South African crime fiction in the last twenty years is presented. Then the essay
presents an argument for South African crime fiction to be regarded as the ‘new political novel’,
based on its capacity for socio-political analysis. In the following section, the genre-snob debate and
the resurgence of such terms as ‘lowbrow’ and ‘highbrow’ are considered in relation to crime fiction
and the role it plays in the socio-cultural arena of post-apartheid South Africa. We conclude with a
comment on the significance of popular literary genres for democracy and critical discourses which
underpin that democracy. The essay shows that crime fiction is a strong tool for socio-political
analysis in a democratic South Africa, because it promotes critical discourse in society, despite it
being deemed lowbrow or ideologically ambiguous.
