Public Transport in Pre-Apartheid Literary Johannesburg: Between Progress and Oppression

Abstract

A close reading of literary representations of Johannesburg’s public transport in the early decades of the 20th century gives insight into the intricate way in which freedom, mobility, and narratives of progressive modernity interlink with urban mobility regimes of public transportation. The literary representations mark public transport simultaneously as progressive and oppressive, depending on access. Where access is denied, public vehicles become part of an oppressive racist mobility regime and exclude individuals from formative experiences of collective belonging. The present analysis engages with selected concepts from the field of mobility studies, namely Cresswell’s thoughts on the relationship of mobility and modern citizenship, Bissell’s observations regarding ‘mobile collectives’, and the idea of ‘throwntogetherness’ by the social geographer Massey. These will be used to analyze the gatekeeping function of public transport in representations of early Johannesburg, where black, male, urban subjecthood is negotiated against white urban modernity.