A new laager for a 'new South Africa: Afrikaans film and the imagined boundaries of Afrikanerdom

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Afrikaans film industry came into existence in 1916, with the commercial release of DeVoortrekkers (Shaw), and, after 1948, flourished under the guardianship of the National Party.South Africa's democratic transition, however, seemed to announce the death of theAfrikaans film. In 1998, the industry entered a nine-year slump during which not a singleAfrikaans film was released on the commercial circuit. Yet, in 2007, the industry was revivedand has been expanding rapidly ever since. This study is an attempt to explain the Afrikaansfilm industry's recent success and also to consider some of its consequences. To do this, Isituate the Afrikaans film industry within a larger – and equally flourishing – Afrikaans cultureindustry. I argue that the Afrikaans language's uncoupling from the state has shifted thepreservation and promotion of the language into market-driven domains. I show thatAfrikaans-language media and cultural commodities – like film – are mostly tailored to andconsumed by white Afrikaans-speakers. And I ask: if a 'distinct Afrikaner identity was firstforged within the cultural sphere, through cultural rituals and through the consumption ofAfrikaans media forms, what kind of subjectivities are, in the present moment, beingproduced by the Afrikaans culture industry? Specifically, I consider the ways in which theAfrikaans culture industry is reifying social life, how it is reaffirming the imagined boundariesof Afrikanerdom, and how, through the consumption of its products, Afrikaners can imagine– or re-imagine – themselves as members of the same collectivity or laager.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University