Millennials in South Africa: Fiction, Media Representations and the need to Displace Otherness and Occupy History

Abstract

Fiction can often serve as a vehicle that addresses dominant cultures in a way that mitigates or displaces assumptions about that culture. However, it remains important that fiction is read in its real-world context in order to understand and explore the issues being addressed. Lily Herne’s two publications, Deadlands and Death of a Saint, displace millennial Otherness in a way that enacts the culture as manifested in South Africa. Not only could this serve as a means to explore the crises related to protests that occupied real and virtual spaces, but also as a means to develop new ways of conceptualising accountability and responsibility during acts of resistance.