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Almost a quarter of a century after the abolition of apartheid, violent crime and fear thereof continues to afflict South Africa. Until well into the 20th century, the country´s literary canon primarily dwelled on presentations of inter-racial violence, suggesting that whites are the sole targets of violence inflicted by ´evil savages´. In the past seventy years, however, this notion was challenged by writers who increasingly attributed ´native crime´ to structural (institutionalized) violence and depicted native lawbreakers as victims in disguise. Based on five literary texts, including Paton´s novel ´Cry, The Beloved Country´, Mphahlele´s autobiography ´Down Second Avenue´, Matthews´ short story "The Park", Fugard´s play ´My Children! My Africa!´ and Coetzee´s novel ´Disgrace´, this book aims at disclosing the origin of violent crime in present-day South Africa. An initial outline of Galtung´s ´violence triangle´, which discusses three forms of violence (direct, structural and cultural violence), serves as a theoretical foundation for the literary analysis, on the basis of which the causality of crime shall be explored.

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Kaiserseder, Dominik
Dominik Kaiserseder studied English and history at the University of Graz, Austria. In 2015, he studied in Stellenbosch and investigated the causes of violent crime in post-apartheid South Africa. After he graduated from university in 2017, Kaiserseder moved to Querétaro, Mexico, where he works as a language teacher.

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