Repository logo
 

Counter-imagination as interpretive practice: futuristic fantasy and The Fifth Element

Date

2004

Authors

Aoki, Eric, author
Ott, Brian L., author
Organization for Research on Women and Communication, publisher

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Abstract

This essay concerns the relationship between popular cinematic visions of the future and present day identity politics. The authors argue that despite its futuristic setting celebrating technological progress and multiculturalism, Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element constructs sexual and racial difference in a manner that privileges and naturalizes White heterosexual masculinity. The essay offers counter-imagination as an interpretive practice that destabilizes the categories of sexual and racial difference as they are negotiated within appeals to popular imagination.

Description

Brian Ott was a professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Colorado State University.
Includes bibliographical references.

Rights Access

Subject

science fiction films
The Fifth Element
counter-imagination
sex
race

Citation

Associated Publications