Just a Warrior at the end of the World: the Meaning of Max

• In Event: Furious Feminisms: Mad Max: Fury Road and the (Broken) Body

Abstract

Mad Max Fury Road arguably presents a feminist space, but it does not necessarily present a liberating space, either via gender or race. Miller’s reliance on the Just Warrior motif and what Isiah Lavender calls the “blackground”, the unnamed ever-presence of race, reflects the white supremacist arc of settler colonialism and furthers a narrative about moral superiority that takes into account but extends beyond gender. These pursuits are situated in the always-already presence of the post-apocalyptic landscape, where identity and meaning have been erased and reformed along particularly raced and gendered lines.

Presenter

• Barbara Gurr, University of Connecticut