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Bosbok Ses Films: Exploring Postheroic Narratives

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Bosbok Ses Films: Exploring Postheroic Narratives Bosbok Ses Films: Exploring Postheroic narratives by Danielle Britz A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts (Drama and Film Studies) In the Department of Drama at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES SUPERVISOR: Chris Broodryk December 2017 ABSTRACT Much of Afrikaans cinema before and after 1994 is characterized by a historically dominant heroic narrative. In response to this dominance, this study offers a postheroic framework for contemporary Afrikaans cinema to demonstrate the ways in which selected contemporary Afrikaans films, especially those films produced by the Bosbok Ses production company – Roepman, Verraaiers and Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux – offer alternatives to Afrikaans cinema’s regular nostalgic and nationalistic indulgences. To arrive at a conceptual framework of the postheroic, this study examines Afrikaner nationalism in traditional historical Afrikaans cinema and contemporary Afrikaans cinema and how it thematically manifests through a heroic narrative. In response to the particular crystallization of nationalism in contemporary Afrikaans cinema, a postheroic framework is demonstrated to negate ideological and social exclusion in selected contemporary Afrikaans films. In this sense, flawed attempts at multiculturalism in contemporary Afrikaans cinema are replaced with double occupancy. This framework is primarily informed by the work of pre-eminent German film scholar Thomas Elsaesser. Elsaesser theorises a postheroic narrative for a European post-nation. Drawing on Elsaesser’s work extensively, this study uses relevant elements of a postheroic narrative to interrogate the social and political content of a contested space such as South Africa. Furthermore, the notion of the postheroic in cinema illuminates and informs my critical reading of the Bosbok Ses historical dramas, Verraaiers (Eilers 2013) and Stuur Groete Aan Mannetjies Roux (Eilers 2013). The study identifies the following markers for a postheroic narrative for contemporary Afrikaans cinema: • atemporality (a non-adherence to chronological and linear screen time) • the film screen as surface of flux (the screen as site of contestation instead of placation) • the cinematic spatial inclusion of the political other as an act of double occupancy i • a posthero who repeatedly fails as a traditional hero and performs, in the end, Elsaesser’s notion of parapraxis • the abjectification of the hero’s physical body (as evidenced primarily in Verraaiers) • stronger female characters who counter the historically nationalistic heroines of the preceding decades (as evidenced primarily in Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux). By using these markers to critically discuss these films I argue for the legitimacy of a postheroic framework for selected contemporary Afrikaans films. This postheroic framework dismantles Afrikaner nationalist rhetoric. The study concludes that a postheroic framework, drawing on Elsaesser’s work in this regard, provides a politically productive set of key ideas and concepts with which to critically engage with selected contemporary Afrikaans films. Keywords: Afrikaans cinema; Afrikaner nationalism, Verraaiers; Stuur Groete Aan Mannetjies Roux; postheroic narrative; double occupancy; parapraxis. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Chris Broodryk, for the numerous helpful discussions which has made the completion of this dissertation possible. Your knowledge and guidance throughout this journey has been irreplaceable. I thank the University of Pretoria for providing me with financial relief in the final year of my Masters. I would like to express my gratitude to Nomfundo Jele, for swiftly and ably editing my dissertation, as well as to Dené Janse van Rensburg for assisting with referencing. The postgraduate research assistant, Viveka Pillay, I thank for willingly and ably assisting me with research, despite impossible circumstances. I thank my family for all the strength and support, without whom I would not have completed this dissertation. Finally, I thank my dog, Panda, for always seeing to it that I take study-breaks. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... v DECLARATION LETTER OF EDITING .......................................................................... vii PLAGIARISM DECLARATION ...................................................................................... viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Roepman (2011) Synopsis ..................................................................................... 4 1.1.2 Stuur Groete Aan Mannetjies Roux (2013) Synopsis ............................................. 4 1.1.3 Verraaiers (2013) Synopsis .................................................................................... 5 1.2 Background and rationale ......................................................................................... 5 1.2.1 A brief historical overview of traditional Afrikaans cinema ...................................... 5 1.2.2 A brief overview of heroes and enemy figures in Afrikaans cinema ....................... 9 1.2.3 Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa .................................................................... 11 1.3 Conceptual and theoretical framework .................................................................... 12 1.4 Problem statement .................................................................................................. 17 1.5 Research question .................................................................................................. 19 1.6 Research approach ................................................................................................. 19 1.7 Chapter outline ........................................................................................................ 21 1.8 List of key terms ...................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER TWO: A CONCEPTUAL CHRONICLE OF SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMA ..... 26 2.1 Chapter introduction ................................................................................................ 26 2.2 South African cinema before and during apartheid ................................................. 27 2.2.1 South African cinema 1890-1930: the establishment of a South African film industry .......................................................................................................................... 28 2.2.2 South African cinema of the 1940s: propaganda films and the Second World War ...................................................................................................................................... 36 2.2.3 South African cinema of the 1950s and 1960s: celebrating Afrikanerdom ........... 40 iv 2.2.4 South African cinema of the 1970s to early 1980s: the communist threat and the Border War film ............................................................................................................. 43 2.2.5 South African cinema of the 1980s and 1990s: towards a politically active film culture ........................................................................................................................... 48 2.3 Post-1994 South African cinema ............................................................................. 51 2.4 Summary of key ideas of chapter two ..................................................................... 61 CHAPTER THREE: THE POSTHEROIC NARRATIVE ................................................. 64 3.1 An overview of European national cinemas ............................................................ 65 3.1.1 An overview of British national cinema ................................................................. 67 3.1.2 An overview of French national cinema ................................................................ 71 3.1.3 An overview of German national cinema .............................................................. 75 3.2 Elsaesser’s notion of double occupancy ................................................................. 81 3.3 Trauma and memory ............................................................................................... 84 3.4 An inoperative community and the unsocial sociability of humankind ..................... 86 CHAPTER FOUR POSTHEROISM IN THE BOSBOK SES FILMS – STUUR GROETE AAN MANNETJIES ROUX AND VERRAAIERS ........................................................... 89 4.1 Postheroism: an introduction ................................................................................... 89 4.2 Postheroism in Stuur Groete Aan Mannetjies Roux ................................................ 90 4.3 Postheroism in Verraaiers ..................................................................................... 104 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 122 5.1 Summary of the study ..........................................................................................
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