District 9: Johannesburg as Nostalgic Dystopia

Landi Raubenheimer is an academic and artist living in Johannesburg. She has published articles on South African film, photography and art in international journals and teaches at the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg.

• AcknowledgementsList of FiguresIntroduction: Unearthing the Johannesburg GenreWhy District 9?Johannesburg in the Sands of TimeA Rosetta Stone: Nostalgic DystopiaA Sublime TopographyExcavating District 9A Map to the SitePart 1District 9 in Context: Nostalgic Dystopia1 The City in Relief1 District 9 and Other Representations of Johannesburg2 Johannesburg3 Dystopia4 Nostalgia5 Speculating on the Sublime5.1 The Post-industrial Sublime5.2 The Sublime in Post-apartheid and Post-colonial Contexts5.3 European Landscape Traditions in South Africa5.4 Sublime Potential2 Digging Deeper1 Analogue Aesthetics1.1 Nostalgia for Analogue Media1.2 Authenticity1.3 Visual Effects in Film2 Ruin Aesthetics2.1 Post-industrial Ruins2.2 FormlessPart 2Analogue Aesthetics3 Mockumentary: A Fly on the ‘Stopnonsense’1 Skeletons in the Closet1.1 Township Planning and Its Discontents: Chiawelo1.2 Land1.3 The States of Emergency2 Analogue Landscape: A Parody of Documentary Conventions2.1 Low-resolution Realism2.2 The Incidental Landscape2.3 Back to the 1980s2.3.1 Landmarks2.3.2 Militarisation2.4 What can Mockumentary Poetics Do?4 Township Nostalgia1 Analogue Nostalgia1.1 Subversive Resistance1.2 ‘Native Nostalgia’1.3 Constructed History5 Sci-fi City1 Science Fiction Poetics1.1 Retrofuturism and ‘New Bad Future’1.2 Spaceship/TownshipPart 3Ruin Aesthetics6 Mining Landscapes1 A History of Mining2 Post-landscape2.1 The Poison Belt2.2 Sublime and Formless Landscapes7 Urban Ruins1 A Sublime Johannesburg?1.1 More than a Feeling1.2 Hillbrow: A New Jerusalem1.3 Ponte City1.4 Considering Entropy8 White Anxiety1 Hegemony in RuinsConclusion: The District 9 CacheAfterwordLooking Back on District 9 – An Interview with Neill BlomkampBibliographyIndex