Some of the most challenging literary productions and theoretical debates on racial identity, oppression and resistance have been generated by the experience of black South Africa. And yet these practices are frequently overlooked by the US academic industries of critical race and postcolonial studies, that engage primarily with the experience of the US and of South Asia, respectively. This course aims to broaden understanding of colonialism and contemporary neocolonialism, as well as expanding student knowledge of an important particular literary archive and national history. We start with the period of the 1940s, when apartheid emerged as an official state expression of racist domination, and end in the post-apartheid era of the 21st century. Students will engage in careful contextualization, and careful close reading of literary texts. The central conceptual concern of the course is the relationship between race and space. We will consider the ways in which this relationship has been theorized by a range of anti-colonial, postcolonial and South African thinkers, and explore what kind of critical conversation our literary archive develops with this thought. No prior familiarity with South African writing will be assumed, though preparatory background reading is recommended. Primary literary texts will include works by Peter Abrahams, Zakes Mda, Phaswane Mpe, Lauretta Ngcobo, Miriam Tlali and Zoe Wicomb. Critical-political and theoretical texts may include works by Neville Alexander, Steve Biko, Frantz Fanon, Njabulo Ndebele and Sarah Nuttall, among others.