Looking Back, Moving Forward: Anarcho-Primitivist Utopia in Whedon’s Firefly

• In Event: Myth and Symbol in U.S. American Culture

Abstract

Balancing progress with nostalgia is a continuing task in our national mythologizing, Joss Whedon’s Firefly re-imagines U.S. American nationhood. Combining the nostalgia of the western with the progressive cultural critique of science fiction, the series offers viewers a utopic anarcho-primitivist community. Presenting anarcho-primitivism as a utopic frontier, Firefly navigates between nostalgia and progress, order and chaos, individual and community to offer an anarcho-primitivist solution to our cultural conundrums.

Author

• Hillary Jones, Penn State University