Chapter 8
In: District 9: Johannesburg as Nostalgic Dystopia
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Abstract
In this last chapter, I consider how the landscape of Johannesburg in District 9 may be regarded in some senses as racially white, and how its post-industrial and post-apartheid decay may be instrumental in and concomitant with a fear (for white citizens) of the loss of white hegemony after apartheid ended. I argue that the landscape itself may be seen as entangled with notions of belonging that are encapsulated in the term ‘white anxiety’. In depictions such as District 9, and performances by the collective AVANT CAR GUARD, where white male figures interact with urban ruins, the post-industrial sublime could be interpreted as offering a degree of critical potential in the context of white anxiety associated with a lack of belonging and the decay of white hegemony in the city. Since the sublime is associated with notions of transformation, I consider how sublime landscapes could present the opportunity for a productive transformation of such anxiety.