Abstract
This dissertation examines the operations of racism and the representation of Black women in Perfect Hlongwane’s Sanity Prevail (2021) and Tshidiso Moletsane’s Junx (2021). Deploying a theoretical framework grounded in Black radical thought, Black feminist thought, Afropessimism, postcolonial theory, and trauma theory, I argue that these novels explore how racism produces violence and sustains the patriarchal project, yet they also reproduce some patriarchal logics in the process. Depression, suicidal ideation, and other mental health problems are presented in these novels as consequences of a racist and sexist society that alienates and dehumanises Black men and women. Racism and patriarchy also create conditions in which Black women are consumable and threatened. I show that, in both Sanity Prevail and Junx, Black women are a present absence: they are featured in these novels but are tangential to the plot. In the first chapter, I show that in Sanity Prevail, racism and patriarchy produce conditions against which characters resist using violence. Yet, this violence paradoxically sustains racial and gendered oppression. I argue that Sanity Prevail portrays violence against Black women as pervasive and normalised, upheld by systemic silence. However, although the novel critiques racism and patriarchy, it also succumbs to the oppressive ideologies of these structures. The second chapter demonstrates that Junx employs nihilism as a lens through which it critiques racism and anti-Blackness. I argue that, while Junx engages South Africa’s ongoing struggles with patriarchy and racism, it also objectifies and idealises Black women.