Democracy at Home in South Africa - Family Fictions and Transitional Culture

Since its liberation in 1994, South Africa has been an object of world attention, as an example of how to end conflict without bloodshed and how to create a constitutional regime based on universal human rights - as well as an example of how these dreams can falter when faced with the realities of "freedom" in the neo-liberal world order. Focusing on aesthetic figuration - novels, performance, photography, visual art installations - of diverse home spaces, modes of domestic life, and family histories, Bystrom argues that writers and artists depicting the first fifteen years of democracy as they unfold literally at home present a compelling portrait of intimate and everyday aspects of political change. They reveal the challenges of the democratic transition and point to unexpected futures. Further, by enacting a form of intimate politics, Bystrom contends, they position private life at the heart of public culture.