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Re/membering the Future? Speculative Fiction by Eben Venter and Lauren Beukes

This article analyses two novels set in dystopic South African futures, namely Trencherman (2008) by Eben Venter, and Moxyland (2008) by Lauren Beukes, a discussion framed by the following theoretical issues. The first question is the extent to which these novels might be considered “future histories” in terms articulated by Michael Green (1994: 15), defined as speculative novels which give serious and detailed attention to the conditions of a particular time, as would be the case in a historical novel. A related question is the extent to which these novels project into the future current societal conditions in South Africa, with regard to the historical drivers of contemporary society. I discuss these questions with reference to the notions of dystopia and “critical dystopia” (Stobie 2012: 369), the latter denoting a dystopia containing hopeful elements. A subsidiary question is the differing ways in which both writers use the grotesque to symbolise different forms of oppressive state power. Drawing on treatments of the grotesque in Krzychylkiewicz (2003), Csicsery-Ronay (2002), and Nettels (1974), I consider corporeal and linguistic forms of the grotesque in Venter’s novel and their role in signifying the toxic morality of apartheid; and in Moxyland, a form of grotesque arising from the fusion of human organism and technology, and its role in signifying a technological mode of oppression. I conclude that Trencherman is a dystopic future history; and that while Moxyland is a critical dystopia, it should not be considered a future history.