Narrating Belonging: Religious Identity, Moral Dislocation, and Cultural Fragmentation in Contemporary South African Literature
Narrating Belonging: Religious Identity, Moral Dislocation, and Cultural Fragmentation in Contemporary South African Literature

Summary/Abstract: This paper investigates how post-apartheid South African fiction reconfigures theological meaning and cultural belonging through narrative strategies that bridge the sacred and the secular. By focusing on works such as The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda, Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk, and Playing in the Light by Zoë Wicomb, the study reveals how literature operates as a prophetic witness, a space of ethical negotiation, and a medium for imagining alternative futures. Drawing from theological concepts such as the prophetic imagination and dialogical ethics, the argument advances the view that these literary texts function not only as reflections of historical trauma but also as cartographies of moral and spiritual possibility. In this way, literature becomes a site where fragmented identities are reassembled and where new visions of faith, community, and justice emerge in tension with modern dilemmas. The study contributes to rethinking the role of fiction in shaping sacred discourse in secular times.

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