"Defiant Identities in a Contemporary Dysto‑Utopian Blockbuster: A Multimodal Analysis of James Cameron’s Avatar".

James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), epitomise a “dysto-utopian” world in which post-human bodies take centre stage in the age-long conflict between humans and the Na’vi: oppressors versus oppressed, illegitimate occupants versus the displaced, destroyers versus preservers. Adopting an integrated analytical framework that combines the theoretical tenets of Cultural, Gender, and Post-colonial Studies with Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, this study intends to demonstrate how Avatar’s post-human corporality challenges dominant Anthropocenic aesthetics, as the bodies of both humanoid natives and former humans resist normative binary dichotomies. It thus happens that Pandora’s (warrior) women, in particular, play a pivotal role, openly contesting inferiorizing notions of female socio-cultural fixity, physical weakness, and psychological frailty. Against this backdrop, the analysis of the films’ major semiotic resources casts light onto their polyvocality and cultural multiplicity, revealing the extent to which the series’ textual fabric acts as an arena of resistance against Western hegemony. In conclusion, Avatar’s unconventional identity models and polyphonic narrative position this commercial blockbuster as a cultural product that hints at the possibility of renewed geopolitical and cultural connections. In an era marked by political tensions and military conflict, its core ideological message assumes newfound vitality, serving as an imperative warning to a human race on the brink of self-annihilation