The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9

The focus of this paper highlights the significance of liminality. Filmed in post apartheid South Africa, in 2005 and 2009 respectively, Tsotsi and District 9 address current and concrete issues pertaining to the country’s historical and political conditions. A close study of the mise-en-scene analy...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhang, Jane Yu Fang
Other Authors: Bede Tregear Scott
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44811
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-44811
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-448112019-12-10T12:37:05Z The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9 Zhang, Jane Yu Fang Bede Tregear Scott School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Humanities::Literature The focus of this paper highlights the significance of liminality. Filmed in post apartheid South Africa, in 2005 and 2009 respectively, Tsotsi and District 9 address current and concrete issues pertaining to the country’s historical and political conditions. A close study of the mise-en-scene analyzed in relation to the lead character’s predicament highlights the layers of power relation at work. Using a network of relations amongst characters of difference race, class and nationality, these films explore the essence of power disparity. This paper will discuss how such power disparity contributes to the character’s alienation and propel their entrapment in liminal spaces. Through this discussion I will highlight how Gramsci’s research on hegemonic forces grants us an insight to the regulant uncertainty which Tsotsi and Wikus struggle to overcome. More prominently, this paper will illustrate how Foucault’s ideas on power relations offer an explanation for the vague and ambiguous endings as depicted in both films. With Tsotsi’s inconclusive surrender and Wikus’s unknown state of condition, their indeterminable future intensifies this air of uncertainty. Following a close analysis of the character’s predicament in time and space, coupled with concepts of the abject, we witness how their individual experience serves to emphasize the ambivalent future of South Africa at large. Bachelor of Arts 2011-06-06T02:19:49Z 2011-06-06T02:19:49Z 2011 2011 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44811 en Nanyang Technological University 38 p. application/msword
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
spellingShingle DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
Zhang, Jane Yu Fang
The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9
description The focus of this paper highlights the significance of liminality. Filmed in post apartheid South Africa, in 2005 and 2009 respectively, Tsotsi and District 9 address current and concrete issues pertaining to the country’s historical and political conditions. A close study of the mise-en-scene analyzed in relation to the lead character’s predicament highlights the layers of power relation at work. Using a network of relations amongst characters of difference race, class and nationality, these films explore the essence of power disparity. This paper will discuss how such power disparity contributes to the character’s alienation and propel their entrapment in liminal spaces. Through this discussion I will highlight how Gramsci’s research on hegemonic forces grants us an insight to the regulant uncertainty which Tsotsi and Wikus struggle to overcome. More prominently, this paper will illustrate how Foucault’s ideas on power relations offer an explanation for the vague and ambiguous endings as depicted in both films. With Tsotsi’s inconclusive surrender and Wikus’s unknown state of condition, their indeterminable future intensifies this air of uncertainty. Following a close analysis of the character’s predicament in time and space, coupled with concepts of the abject, we witness how their individual experience serves to emphasize the ambivalent future of South Africa at large.
author2 Bede Tregear Scott
author_facet Bede Tregear Scott
Zhang, Jane Yu Fang
format Final Year Project
author Zhang, Jane Yu Fang
author_sort Zhang, Jane Yu Fang
title The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9
title_short The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9
title_full The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9
title_fullStr The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9
title_full_unstemmed The liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in Tsotsi and District 9
title_sort liminal and inconclusive rites of passage in tsotsi and district 9
publishDate 2011
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44811
_version_ 1681041914721206272