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Postmodern Themes and Tropes in Zoo City - Coggle Diagram
Postmodern Themes and Tropes in Zoo City
Magical realism
narrative mode whereby the author incorporates elements of magic
or fantasy into an otherwise realistic setting
disrupt and deconstruct
established discourses, forcing readers to stop and question the status quo
continual socio-political transitions our country faces
Experimentation with language and genre
disregards
the established borders between fact and fiction
characters and people in a realistic landscape
breaches cultural borders in her portrayal of affluent Western society side-byside with traditional African practices
upper-class vs slums
contravenes musical genres
Time is disrupted by what Bal (2017) calls retroversions
violates borders between languages
contravenes the borders between the natural and the
supernatural, with her use of magical realism
“crossover project”
nod towards self-reflexivity
resists generic definition
science fiction
cyberpunk
slipstream
noir
motif of muti
dystopian
Pastiche
form of imitation
combines references and styles to
create a new cultural product that is more than the sum of its parts
different styles are emphasised by varying typography,
drawing the reader’s attention to her formal experimentation
references to architecture, music, places
and people
Music
Biko Bar
the focal point of a crest of struggle symbols, power fists,
soccer balls
branded
Newtown
individual characters
often taken to ludicrous extremes
Rejection of grand narratives
ejecting the social
grand narratives of the country
Johannesburg as the “City of Gold”
Black female protagonist, offers a new voice in the
literature of a nation historically dominated by White males
reshape readers’ views of
society
highlights historically oppressed groups
replaces with smaller narratives
incredulity towards metanarratives
Metafiction and Unreliable Narrator
Beukes alerts the reader to the work’s status as a manufactured
text
“ironic self-consciousness” and its function is fundamentally
subversive
Zinzi creates her own stories out of her imagination
totally-not-fabricated biography
creates a
fake narrative as a front for her prying into the lives of music industry members
She presents only her very subjective version of events
Zinzi’s characteristic cynicism acts as a meta-critique of her narrative style
Syncretism and Intertextuality
Syncretism refers to the merging of cultures, schools of thought or inflections of
language
blends cultures
many worlds, with many voices, within contemporary South Africa, and she attempts to
represent them
magical realism helps acheive this
intertextuality to add depth of meaning
employs intertextuality to situate her work in contemporary culture
Imagery: Animals, photography and water
Apiosymbiots’ animals are considered by some to be symbols of guilt
by others the physical manifestation of sin
reactions to animals and the
animalled by the characters in Zoo City mirror the possible responses of readers
muti
mashavi are not domesticated animals
attachment to humans speaks of a kind of entrapment for them both, as implied by
the derogatory nickname “zoo”
Photography provides critical distance
fragmented retrospective narrative captures a postmodern aesthetic
whilst addressing postmodern themes of dislocation and existentialism.
Impermanence is also portrayed through the photography
Dave the photojournalist, on the other hand, uses photography in a voyeuristic way, to
try to access and interpret the multiplicity of other people’s experiences
multiple, coexisting truths
Water is conventionally viewed as a symbol of purity and rebirth. Zoo City challenges
this
menacing mood is
undeniably postmodern, and Beukes’ treatment of water imagery brings this out
Zinzi December
AAF - Acquired Aposymbiotic Familiarism = paired with an animal as a sign to the world of her chequered past
Past comes to light as she solves mysteries in the present
