Crous, Mikhaila2023-11-072023-11-072023https://hdl.handle.net/10539/36921A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Literature, Language and Media, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023Space has always been a topical issue in South African history, highlighted again in the student protests of 2015/16 with calls for the space of Higher Education to be “decolonised”. Although democracy was established in 1994, the upheaval made clear that the post-apartheid space had not yet sufficiently changed and, in the case of South African universities, the curriculum was identified as an aspect in need of ‘decolonisation’. Within this context, it becomes clear that German Studies not only needs to situate itself in debates on curricular transformation, but also within the multilingual educational landscape. Although Germany was never a colonial power in South Africa and German is mentioned as a minority language in the democratic Constitution (1996), the role that the subject can play in the democratic (knowledge) project needs to be further investigated. The following thesis draws on Jonathan Jansen’s (2017:162) conception of decolonisation as “encounters with entangled knowledges” as it corresponds to the constitutional values on which the post-apartheid space and society are built. It is argued that crime fiction set in South Africa engages with “entangled knowledges” thereby showing a relevance to the lived realities of German Studies students at South African universities. Crime fiction is an adaptable genre with the ability to perceive social tensions and thereby offering a window onto society. The thesis focuses on analysing four novels which can be classified as “Afrika-Krimis” and present different representations of the post-apartheid society by two authors, one from the Global North and one from the Global South: The Farm (2014) and The Wall (2016) by Max Annas, and Heart of the Hunter (2002) and Blood Safari (2007) by Deon Meyer. Annas’ novels respectively depict a microcosm of South African society in the Eastern Cape; in contrast, Meyer’s novels have multiple locales across the country. The novels are analysed through an entangled conception of space based on Henri Lefebvre’s (1991:26) understanding that “(social) space is a (social) product” in conjunction with Sarah Nuttall’s (2009:1) notion of entanglement. It is shown that South Africa is a highly complex and entangled space where neither crime scenes are always logical, crimes are neatly solved nor history can be ignored. Both the concepts of democracy and decolonisation can be considered as open-ended constructs that require on-going critical engagement.deEntanglementDecolonisationCrime fictionTransformationThesis