Mad Max – Spare-Parts Heroes, Recycled Narratives, Reused Visualities and Recuperated Histories
Mad Max – Spare-Parts Heroes, Recycled Narratives, Reused Visualities and Recuperated Histories

Summary/Abstract: The main assumption of this paper is that the mechanisms science fiction cinema uses follow three directions in order to create new representations. One is the cinema narratives that develop new worlds by simply mimicking the already existing social realities, the present day political and cultural contexts. In their critical form, these are negations of present. Another major function is that of future projections using past histories and mythologies. In their negative form, they are often dystopian worlds. This dichotomy between the utopian vs. dystopian representations has been raised and dealt with in art and literature. Yet the divide between utopian (as modern, positive future projection) and dystopian (as postmodernism, defective representation) is described by the author as limited. The method used to move beyond is the negation of negation, practiced as an interpretative principle, which can deal with the issue of retroactive projections. In order to provide some answers to these complex problems, the author uses examples from the cult series “Mad Max”, analyzed as a coherent case study. One of the main arguments for selecting the saga developed by George Miller is the fact that it spans over a long period of time – since its first installment in 1979 to the most recent adventure in the Wastelands from 2015, there have been many changes that provide a relevant overview of the possible transformations of a narrative over a long time. This allows the articulation of multiple critical discourses, towards both the projection of ideology within the internal structure of the aesthetic representation and the relationship between utopias and dystopias within the narrative field.

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