Discuss issues of representation of gender and race

In District 9 the issues regarding gender and race vary. Throughout the film there are negative representations of those who have roles of power, become terrible and commit atrocities.

The white people on the whole are represented as the dominant race with the power and money. In addition, with the white people having the higher roles, they are portrayed as injustice carrying out terrible acts. Connotations include them as being money orientated and double crossing.

The Nigerians are perceived very negatively, with a gangster organised crime type image. These Nigerians have traits including cannibalism, with various connotations of crime such as prostitution, arms dealing and breaking of a number of other laws.

The aliens known as ‘Prawns’ are also shown as chaotic and less intellectual compared to human beings.

Women have a representation of weak and dependant on the male figures. Women roles are not vital for the storyline therefore they are not essential, being considered as being underrepresented. A representation of men on the whole refer too them as being killing machines, presenting the idea to the audience that humans are scared when uncertain about outsiders.

Discuss how typical the text is of its genre

The genre of the film is a science fiction with elements of a documentary style. Conventions of the science fiction genre include the aliens, futuristic weapons and the mother ship. Conventions of the documentary style genre are the hand held camera, interviews, with the use of the found footage and stock footage. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of the camera is another convention of a documentary styled genre.

How is the film postmodern?

The film is postmodern as it pays homage to the film fly. The hybrid genre consists of the science fiction genre with a documentary style included, this being a strand of postmodernism.

What is the contextual cultural content in the text?

The Apartheid is a major part of the cultural context. This event was where there was large segregation between white and black people in South Africa. Blacks, for the most part, were kept separate from whites.Moreover, when there was an overlap, there were very clearly delineated hierarchies of where people were allowed to go. Those ideas are presented with the ‘prawns’, being referred to the black community representing how they suffered.