THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STYLIZED UTOPIA: AFRO-FUTURISM IN AMERICAN SCI-FI CINEMA

Abstract

The history of Hollywood as a global movie industry goes back to the 19th century.

It has achieved its leading position in the global market since the 20th century. Thus

having a dominant role throughout the world. Especially after the Second World War,

Hollywood, which also included the ideological and cultural values of different ethnic

origins, expanded its product range and gave every class or segment the opportunity

to express themselves in a cinematic perspective. One of them, Afro-futurism, is a

movement that re-imagines the future of Africa and the African diaspora. This

movement can be found in many fields such as cinema, literature, visual arts and

popular music. In the Afro-futurist art movement, where an alternative world is

imagined, national borders are abolished through sci-fi, fantasy and cyber-culture

(technology), and the transformation in information and communication technologies

is placed at the center of utopia. In this context, throught the study, the effect of Afrofuturism

on philosophical and aesthetic myth forms on Hollywood has been examined,

and the cinematic codes at the core of the Afro-futurist project have been tried to

be explained.