A Structural Approach to the Monomyth in Contemporary Action Cinema: Dredd, John Wick, and Mad Max: Fury Road

One of the crazier scenes from Mad Max: Fury Road

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to provide an overview of three contemporary action films Dredd 3D, John Wick, and Mad Max Fury Road, through a so-called “bio-structuralist” approach - combining archetypal criticism, literary Darwinism, and narratology, into a unified, holistic theoretical model. A particular emphasis is put on the monomyth as a story paradigm that all the films in the case studies share, whose combination of a biologically dictated scaffolding, and cultural brickwork, is an excellent testing ground for the theoretical model. In addition to the attempts of revealing glimpses of our evolved nature in the plots, narrative conventions, cinematography, themes, motivations, settings, and character networks in the films, the thesis attempts to balance the hardliner literary Darwinist stance of the dominance of biology over culture, with an acknowledgement of the existence of cultural transmission and stylistic evolution. Thus, the thesis proposes terminology that differentiates between cultural units totally dominated by biology, partially tied to it, and completely independent of it, albeit spread in ways reminiscent of biological evolution. The proposed theoretical model is shown to be a viable alternative to post-structuralist approaches as far as the study of action cinema is concerned, with its ample scope serving as its principal advantage.

Publication
Master’s Thesis. Department of English and American Studies. Masaryk University.
Stefan Veleski
Stefan Veleski
Doctoral student in English literature
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