Fever Dreams: Surveying the Representation of Plagues and Pandemics in South African Speculative Fiction

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the representation of outbreaks of infectious disease in South African speculative fiction. The focus is on novels by South African authors (even if some are set in the US) which envision a future plague or pandemic, from AIDS to flu-like viruses to a zombie outbreak. This is not an in-depth analysis of individual texts but a survey of the ways in which future plagues are envisioned, including in young adult fiction and popular fiction.

Keywords:

• South African literature
• speculative fiction
• science fiction
• depictions of disease
• illness in literature
• visions of the future
• dystopian literature
• apocalyptic fiction
• South African speculative fiction
• representations of pandemics