Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

From Cheap Labour to surplus humanity

2018; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3828/sfftv.2018.7

1754-3789

Rebecca Duncan,

Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature

Conventions appropriated from certain forms of speculative fiction – sf, gothic and horror among them – have become increasingly discernible features of diverse contemporary postcolonial imaginaries. In this article, I consider Neill Blomkamp's District 9 (2009) in light of questions posed by these developments. Drawing on world-ecological thinking (Moore 2015) and highlighting legacies of South African political economy (Wolpe 1972), I suggest the film deploys sf and horror traditions alongside invocations of local history in response to the reorganisation of 'Nature' in South Africa in the wake of the transition from apartheid to neoliberal governance. I show that Blomkamp manipulates speculative forms to register the febrile climate of this anxious time, and to contest the logic undergirding historic and ongoing unevenness. In conclusion, I point to key limitations to his project in this last regard.