ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 introduces a survey of the claims that have been laid on the city in South African literature from the mining origins of the industrial city and through the colonial-apartheid period to the first two decades of the democratic state. Drawing on theories of the global south and of the struggle for the right to the city, it motivates for its study of literature that has archived and composed counterclaims to those staked by racial capitalism, including the claims of assembly and attachment.
