Jungian Reflections on South African Cinema

Abstract

This chapter explores how, in the aftermath of apartheid, Oliver Hermanus' film Skoonheid (2011) can serve as a healing fiction by inviting an engagement with present and past political and personal conflicts and resisting a type of cultural amnesia. In particular, this chapter draws on Jungian film studies to explore key scenes in Skoonheid that demonstrate the effects of a frustrated individuation process that nonetheless offers possibilities for the viewer to consider ways of healing. To position Skoonheid as healing fiction, the chapter utilises the work of James Hillman, amongst others, to conceptualise notions of healing. The chapter also locates the film against the historical backdrop of an Afrikaans-language cinema that traditionally privileged an inflexible white male subjectivity. In contrast, Skoonheid shows the Afrikaans-speaking white male as inhabiting a space of perceived disempowerment and loss, where the soul should still strive towards meaningful acts within a collective, within a community.