Maxim A. ROMANENKO Southern Federal University
105/42 Bolshaya Sadovaya Str., Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russian Federation
Institute of Tourism, Service and Creative Industries, Associate Professor
Candidate of Science (Philosophy)
e-mail: mromanenko@sfedu.ru
ORCID: 0000-0001-6018-767X
Romanenko, M. (2025) Afrofuturist Utopia as a Response to the “Lost Future”Abstract: This article examines Afrofuturism as a significant manifestation of utopian imagination in the context of the crisis of historicity and the growing sense of a “lost future” (M. Fisher). The author draws upon the concept of utopia as method (F. Jameson and R. Levitas), which views utopia as a skill and a means of imagining alternative social orders. Afrofuturism is presented as a cultural strategy that enables a rethinking of the traumatic past of the African diaspora and the creation of future-oriented images expressing a critique of colonial legacy and a pursuit of social justice.
The focus of the analysis is Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2018), a Marvel Cinematic Universe film that has become a “herald of Afrofuturism” in popular culture. The fictional African nation of Wakanda is depicted as a utopian space that integrates tradition and progress, isolationism and global responsibility, equality and diversity. Through temporal discontinuity, cognitive estrangement, and polyphonic narrative, the film presents an alternative model of modernity in which a traumatic past becomes the foundation for imagining the future. Special attention is given to the internal conflict between competing visions of the future represented by the main characters, which allows utopia to be interpreted as a field of dynamic contradiction.
Key words: Afrofuturism, lost future, utopia, utopia as method, Black Panther, future, past, memory, modernity.
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For Citation: Romanenko, M. (2025) Afrofuturist Utopia as a Response to the “Lost Future”. International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (61). 75–87. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_4_75
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_4_75
