A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Digital Arts to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2018 / This research report presents a critical thematic analysis of Andrew Miller’s science
fiction (SF) novel Dub Steps with the intention of demonstrating that the book’s central
themes are interrelated and evoke various tensions between the ideological projects
of western liberal humanism and critical posthumanism. Furthermore, this study
examines how the novel’s setting of Johannesburg articulates with its themes and
complicates the unfolding drama of the liberal humanist subject in crisis, especially in
connection to South Africa’s troubled history of colonialism and apartheid.
Representations of race – specifically blackness and whiteness – are at stake in the
interactions between Johannesburg and the central themes of Dub Steps, and the
historical and material politics of race in South Africa are brought to bear upon the
novel’s depiction of a posthuman future. This study finds that Dub Steps may be read
as a posthuman SF fantasy in which the vestiges of colonialism and apartheid are
finally undone and socio-economic inequalities persisting in the post-apartheid
sphere are finally rebalanced. However, it is also the view of this research report that
the progressive potential of the novel is undermined by its technophobic ethos and a
reversion to harmful stereotypes about black people in its vision of a new world order / MT 2019
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/27109 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Worster, Amy Loureth |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (144 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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