“My World is Fire and Blood” – “Mad Max: Fury Road” and Semantic Games with Post-apocalyptic Dirt
Marcin Kowalczyk
marcin.kowalczyk@ukw.edu.plKazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2033-445X
Abstract
The conventions of the post-apocalyptic cinema enforce a specific aesthetics, and its visual dominant is often dirt. This element is usually contrasted with the alleged purity of the world before a catastrophe. Mad Max: Fury Road (dir. George Miller, 2015) seems to be an example of this strategy. However, the article shows that Miller’s work reveals an interesting ambivalence: suggesting the legitimacy of the dirt-purity opposition typical of the convention, the film simultaneously undermines it. Therefore, in Mad Max: Fury Road we can see three different systems of meaning based on these categories. The first one is a consequence of the accepted convention, the next two show the original author’s vision and represent a successful artistic attempt to overcome the typical perception of some features of the post-apocalyptic world. The article uses elements of Roland Barthes’s semiotic analysis of film, as well as Mary Douglas’s findings on the category of dirt and purity in culture.
Keywords:
Mad Max, post-apocalypse, film semiotics, dirtReferences
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Authors
Marcin Kowalczykmarcin.kowalczyk@ukw.edu.pl
Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2033-445X
Ph.D., Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland, cultural studies. He focuses on post-war culture, in particular socialist realism, as well as popular culture, including problems related to science fiction film and literature, and martial arts studies. He is the author of the monograph Tyrmand karnawałowy [Carnival Tyrmand] (2008) and articles published in, among others, Pamiętnik Literacki, Kultura Popularna, Przegląd Humanistyczny, and Przestrzenie Teorii.
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