Producing Disgust : Profanation, the Carnivalesque, and Queering as Keys for Understanding the Unsettling Pop Cultural Performance of Die Antwoord

Abstract

This chapter looks at the terminology that we have for discussing deliberate disgust production. Terms such as profanation, the carnivalesque and queering describe processes that attack, highlight, and possibly question a society’s norms and power relations by portraying something that might otherwise be sacred or conventional in an inappropriate, parodic or weird manner. Since norm violations may induce disgust, these terms may be considered as engaging with disgust. Yet the aims and outcomes of the engagement that they describe seem different. Via a case study of the irritating, disgust inducing performances of the South African rap rave trio Die Antwoord, I show how these terms provide different frames and produce different readings that range from condemning to celebratory. Profanation evokes breaches of sacred or taboo issues; the carnivalesque highlights the communal and celebratory; and queering likely shifts attention to intersections of gender, race and class. The frames and terminology used to describe and make sense of deliberate disgust induction are thus an essential part of constructing performances such as Die Antwoord’s.