ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the post-millennial social-cultural, built and other spaces of literary Johannesburg are defined in the speculative novels Zoo City by Lauren Beukes and The Mall by S. L. Grey. It focuses on how the inner/intimate spaces between characters are mapped within a magically tinged dysfunctional social spatiality. The chapter considers the mapping of the lived spaces and vibrant city's socio-cultural spaces, such as music scenes, in relation to the horrifying underground spaces of criminality and the manipulative and horrible underbelly mall-based consumption culture. It highlights a speculative fictional postcolonial expose of the various spaces and associated criticism of the horror and dystopia marking the post-millennial Johannesburg condition. The residents' travels and interaction with different spaces also map the characteristic multiplicities evident in the post-millennial literary Johannesburg. The image of fragmented post-transition Johannesburg spatiality is hereby reflected through the African magical, speculative and horror.
