ABSTRACT

The symbolic importance of the image of the farm in South African cultural imaginaries can hardly be overestimated, even today. Historically placed at the nexus of the dualism between commercial agricultural areas and the communal areas of the Bantustans, farms are still deeply marked by the processes of colonisation and dispossession that made them possible. The material and symbolic infrastructures associated with the farm continue to sort access to the rural as idyllic and turn the farm into what Stoler has termed “imperial debris.” In this article, I will analyse how Karin Brynard’s novel Homeland and Michael Matthews’ film Five Fingers for Marseilles stage images of ruined farms that nudge audiences away from the “love and ownership of the farm” as one of the privileged scenes of South African rurality. How do these two texts use the farm to draw attention to the disastrous tracks rural idylls, in their (neo)liberal, capitalistic and (neo)colonial guises, have left in the contemporary moment? What kind of rural futures, livelihoods and landscapes can be gauged from the farm in ruin?

摘要

即使在今天，也很难高估南非形象中的农场形象的象征意义。从历史上看，农业处于商业农业区和班图斯坦人的公共区之间的二元关系的中心，农场仍然深深地被殖民化和剥夺进程的标志深深地烙印，使之成为可能。与农场相关的物质和象征性基础设施继续使进入乡村的道路变得田园般，使农场变成了斯托勒所说的“帝国残骸”。在本文中，我将分析Karin Brynard的小说《故乡》和Michael Matthews的电影《五指为马赛》废弃农场的舞台图像，使观众远离“农场的爱和所有权”，这是南非乡村特权的场景之一。这两本书如何利用农场来吸引人们关注农村田园诗的灾难性轨迹，这些田园诗以（新）自由主义，资本主义和（新）殖民的形式在当代留下了？废墟中的农场可以衡量出什么样的农村前途，生计和景观？