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History at the end of the world: decolonial revisionism in Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok
Journal article   Peer reviewed

History at the end of the world: decolonial revisionism in Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok

Joseph Packer and Ethan Stoneman
The review of communication, Vol.22(2), pp.127-142
03/04/2022

Abstract

cultural studies decolonization public memory rhetoric settler colonialism
From 19th-century novels to contemporary computer-animated adventure films, popular media culture provides no shortage of representations that subserve colonialist attitudes and perspectives. Thor: Ragnarok (2017) provides a rare decolonial fantasy, which is especially surprising given that it does so through the veneer of the big-budget superhero film. Registering a deep concern with public memory, the film spotlights and challenges the various uses of public memory in the maintenance of colonial legitimation. In doing so, Thor: Ragnarok offers an incisive and uncompromising indictment of colonization and colonialism, one that ends not with a call for reform but with the end of the world.

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