| dc.description.abstract | In this two part article J.M. Coetzee's eponymous novel, Disgrace (1999) and the 2008-film version thereof will be briefly discussed with a focus on its use of and reference to the Afrikaans farm novel. In White Writing (1988) Coetzee wrote authoritatively on the Afrikaans farm novel and in particular on the novels of C.M. van den Heever, one of the seminal figures in this sub-genre. Core aspects of this sub-genre are lineal consciousness (the farm as an inalienable space and the importance of hereditary succession), the farm as space imbued with patriarchal values and the biblical primogeniture and the preponderance of patriarchy (as can be seen in graves, portraits and heirlooms). Further central concepts are the hierarchical structure of the farm (the owner being the landlord surrounded by vassals: "bywoners" and labourers alike) and the farm as idyllic space in contrast to the town and especially the city which is usually depicted as a latterday Sodom and Gomorrah and the epitome of all the seven cardinal sins in different forms of debauchery. Whilst the farm is usually represented as a form of a bastion, in Disgrace in particular this aspect is meticulously dismantled. One of our central hypotheses in this study is that Coetzee's novel is in fact a parody of the traditional Afrikaans farm novel (like so many important Afrikaans novels by Etienne Leroux, Marlene van Niekerk, Etienne van Heerden, etc.). This film works with many of these fixed topoi of the farm novel genre, but then clearly in a parodical fashion: patriarchy, succession, social stratification (of specific owner and foreigners), the opposition, place/city, and the importance of the spatial. Another important hypothesis underlying this study is that the South African reader of the novel (and the spectator of the film) responds differently than the international reader and spectator. International critics initially did not even mention the (Afrikaans) farm novel as a field of allusion and as an important intertextual "reference". To explain this theoretically, we use Stuart Hall's definition of culture as a shared body of knowledge and also allude to several theoretical constructs (inter alia habitus, Bourdieu; repertoire, Even-Zohar and discursive formations, Foucault) which are all deterministic in nature and imply that certain knowledge, attitudes and perspectives are internalized on an unconscious level and determine one's decoding of signs or messages. The term we use is deictical patterns because deixis presupposes a shared context and even contextual precognition. In this first part of the study we briefly outline core aspects of film narratology (especially the importance of semiosis) because the interpretation of a film also requires a familiarity with the language of film. OPSOMMING: In hierdie artikel word J.M. Coetzee se bekende roman Disgrace (1999) eerstens ontleed en daarna word ook die verfilming daarvan in 2008, onder die loep geneem. Coetzee self het in sy werk uit 1988, White Writing, gesaghebbend geskryf oor die Afrikaanse plaasroman en ook oor die romans van C.M. van den Heever, 'n seminale skrywer binne hierdie sub-genre. Sentrale begrippe binne die Afrikaanse plaasroman is erfopvolging, wat daarvan uitgaan dat die plaas 'n onvervreembare ruimte is wat deur erfopvolging oorgaan van vader na seun (Coetzee praat van lineal consciousness), die oorheersing van patriargale waardes en die plaas as idilliese ruimte, maar ook as hiërargies gestruktureerd met die eienaar as Middeleeuse lyfheer en al die lyfeienes op feodale wyse as onderhoriges: bywoners én arbeiders. Daar word in hierdie studie uitgegaan van verskeie hipotetiese aannames: dat Coetzee in sy roman voorkennis verwag van sy leser (ook van die aard van die Afrikaanse plaasroman) en dat sy roman inderwaarheid 'n parodie van hierdie sub-genre is. Dit word teoreties verduidelik aan die hand van teorieë van onder meer Hall, Bourdieu en Even-Zohar. Voorts word die kinematografiese narratief teoreties belig en aangevoer dat kommunikasie deikties van aard is deurdat semiotiese tekens nie gedekodeer kan word sonder bepaalde voorkennis asook kontekstuele kennis nie. Vervolgens word die film Disgrace (2008) ontleed, maar veral dan as persiflage/parodie van die plaasnarratief. Hierdie film werk met vaste topoi van die plaasroman-genre: die patriargie, erfopvolging, sosiale stratifikasie (van spesifiek eienaar en bywoners), die opposisie: plaas/stad, en die belang van die ruimtelike, maar op duidelik parodiërende wyse. | |
