USWP18: Cultures' Critical Conditions

Topical Introduction | Rhetorical Introduction | Readings

Unit 1: Disneyworlds: Popular Culture and Cultural Imperialism?

Topical Introduction for Unit 1

Disney is a phenomenon with which-almost regardless of gender, race, religion or political affiliation-we are all familiar, whether we like it or not. Accordingly I have chosen this unavoidable common ground as an accessible point at which to start our analysis of culture.

Unit 1 demonstrates that even something as apparently simple, beneficial-or at worst, harmless-as Disney, has the capacity to cause considerable critical anxiety and conflict. For instance, Peter and Rochelle Schweizer subtitle their book Disney, The Mouse Betrayed: Greed, corruption and children and risk!

Indeed the familiar phenomenon of "Disney" proves surprisingly large and elusive the moment you try to define it, because "Disney" includes: the enigmatic film-maker and entrepreneur, "Uncle" Walt Disney himself, but also his evolving cinematic and business legacies; the spectrum of cartoons and other kinds of film-ranging from the Mickey Mouse cartoons to Pretty Woman, but including numerous flops-for which Disney has been responsible; Disney's global, corporate empire, which encompasses theme parks in the USA, Europe and Asia, and a vast range of other educational and leisure merchandising.

RHETORICAL OBJECTIVES FOR UNIT 1

Learning how to:

• Select a key passage from any of the essays we have read.
• Perform a close reading of the extract in which you annotate-and perhaps highlight/underline-key examples and quotes from the extract: the evidence for your essay.
• Write an exegesis (an analysis and explication)-but not a summary- of the extract.
• Relate the extract briefly to relevant aspects of the rest of the text from which it comes.
• Expand your analysis-if appropriate-to include other relevant texts for purposes of comparison and contrast, and further explication.

Readings for Unit 1

1. Richard de Cordova, "The Mickey in Macy's Window: Childhood, Consumerism and Disney Animation". Reprinted in Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom. New York: Routledge, 1994. Ed. Eric Smoodin: 203-213.
2. Walter Wanger, "Film Phenomena." In Disney Discourse [from Saturday Review of Literature 1943]: 42-3.
3. John Cassy, "Defining Moment for Disney." The Guardian (May 30 2001): 28.
4. David Payne, "Bambi". In From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film Gender and Culture. Eds Elizabeth Bell et al. Bloomington: Indiana Press, 1995: 137-147.

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