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Deconstructing Disney

Deconstructing Disney

Eleanor Byrne | Martin McQuillan

(1999)

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Book Details

Abstract

Demonising Disney is nothing new. Disney films have long been synonymous with a certain conservative, patriarchal, heterosexual ideology, occupying a centre-stage position at the heart of the evil empire. Deconstructing Disney takes issue with knee-jerk polarities, overturning classical oppositions and recognising that, just as the Disney 'text' has changed, so too must the terms of critical engagement.

This book is a sharply focused deconstruction of the political culture - and the cultural politics - of the Disney canon in the years since the emergence of the so-called New World Order. Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan offer a critical encounter with Disney which alternates between readings of individual texts and wider thematic concerns such as race, gender and sexuality, the broader context of American contemporary culture, and the global ambitions and insularity of the last great superpower. The movies discussed include The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pocohontas, Snow White, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Dumbo, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Hercules and Mulan.
'What could could be more innocent that Disney animated films? Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan set out to prove how wrong that assumption is in their ideological critique. They join the growing number of critics who argue that Disney's hegemony in the contemporary world ... insightful and uncanny'
Scope: Online Journnal of Film Studies

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Contents iii
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction Duckology: Political Narrative in the Age of Deconstruction 1
Reading for Socialism 1
Keeping Up With the Paula Joneses 7
How to Read Donald Trump 14
1 A Spectre is Haunting Europe: Disney Rides Again 19
Speculating on Disney 19
When Shrimps Learn to Whistle 22
Intermission 37
2 Socialisme ou barbarie: Welcoming Disney 42
The Legs of Freud 42
Cosmopolitics 45
3 Domesticated Animus: Engendering Disney 57
Raised the Disney Way 57
The logic of the B& B 69
4 Spectographies: Conjuring Disney 73
Call me Al 73
An African Hamlet 82
5 'You Can't Lionise the Lion': Racing Disney 94
Ev'rybody Wants To Be a Cat 96
Red Men Tell No Tales 105
Going Into the Red 108
6 It's the Economy, Stupid: Bill 'n' Disney 111
It Takes a Village 111
Cosmospolitics 124
7 King of the Swingers: Queering Disney 133
Forever Friends 133
Gay Paris 139
Mickey Mouse Democracy 145
8 Democracy Limited: Impeaching Disney 151
Hercules Unzipped 151
Mulan Rouge 159
Epilogue: Disney Work 168
Filmography 177
Disney Films ( in chronological order) 177
Other Films ( in alphabetical order) 179
Select Bibliography 181
Notes 188
Introduction 188
Chapter 1 189
Intermission 190
Chapter 2 190
Chapter 3 191
Chapter 4 193
Chapter 5 196
Chapter 6 198
Chapter 7 201
Chapter 8 202
Epilogue 204
Index 206
Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective, 41