THE UNREACHABLE DREAM OF THE BLACK PANTHER

Lorraine Klein

ABSTRACT

In a “disenchanted”* West, in Max Weber’s words, science fiction as a field of speculation, prediction, warning, and as a « lab of the future » is undeniably popular in theaters this last decade. Faced with recurrent themes, such as « natural » disasters, clashes, wars, dehumanization and social fractures, Black Panther, a 2018 Marvel science-fiction film, and its diegetic world may have looked as a eu-topia (a good place), a model to look forward to. As such, from its afrofuturism, the modern yet traditional fictional kingdom Wakanda, to its reversal of the balance of power, Black Panther is a milestone on many levels in the contemporary sci-fi landscape. However, with the insurmountable limitations of its societal model, it is closer to utopia in its more depressing form: its unreachability.

* Max Weber, Sociology of Religion (Beacon Press- 2nd edition, 1993).