CMS 3340: National Cinemas Deconstructing Disney

Course Objectives

This is a revolving topics National Cinemas course, meaning that we study different cinemas as they relate to national identities.

This semester, we will study how selected Disney films reflect, shape, and skew American identities. We will no doubt enjoy watching these films that, for most of us, are wonderful childhood memories. However, we will now revisit those films with fresh eyes in order to deconstruct how Disney's appropriation and revision of traditional fairy tales renders neither its claim to "innocence" nor simple "entertainment."

We will focus primarily on how ideologies of gender, race, class, sexuality, capitalism, and nation are constructed in both early and recent animated Disney films. Of course, these Disney films are cultural products; they were created within particular historical and cultural contexts. As such, we will study how their creative circumstances yielded their particular intersections of racism, sexism, classism, colonialism, and imperialism, though we will also consider how audiences can interpret these popular culture texts in ways not necessarily designed or even forethought by Disney.

Course Format

Our class will cover at least one film per week--often two. On Tuesdays we will focus on the week's assigned reading in an introductory lecture and discussion, and occasionally we will screen our week's second film during class. On Thursdays, we'll discuss both the film(s) and assigned readings during class.

You will be responsible for lively class discussions on our films and readings. This means that you must have read and screened all required material before class. A thorough command of the film terminology you learned in CMS 2100 is expected in all of our discussions and on your exams.

Film Screenings

Please note that the films are mandatory. That is, you must watch the assigned films before Tuesday's class meeting on your own on DVD or streaming. Do NOT watch films on YouTube or other poor quality, truncated versions of the films. These films will be the primary subject matter of our exams, so high quality screenings viewed each week are important; do not rely on having seen these films when they were first released or even last month, since we will be approaching them from very different perspectives now than we did then. If you do not plan to watch the films on DVD or streaming on your own, you should drop the course. We will view additional excerpts from selected films during class lectures.

Always arrive five minutes early to class, not only because we will start promptly but also because late arrivals are extremely disruptive. If you must arrive late, always use the back door to enter the room. Do not eat loud foods, use cell phones or text, talk with classmates, sleep, or leave the room during class; these are a time for serious study of our film texts so you should be taking copious notes during each film to prepare for your class discussions and exams. You may wish to bring a penlight to classes and screenings to help you take notes in the dark. Anyone behaving disruptively during a screening or class will be asked to leave.

Required Texts (Available at the campus bookstore or online vendors)

1.     Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells, eds., From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. Indiana UP: 1995. (ISBN  978-0253209788)

Recommended Optional Texts (Available at the campus bookstore or online vendors)

1.     Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan, Deconstructing Disney. Pluto Press: 1999. (ISBN 0745314511)

2.     Brenda Ayres, The Emperor's Old Groove. Lang: 2003 (ISBN 978-0820463639)

Note: If you have added this course during the schedule change period and/or were not present for the syllabus review the first day of class, you are required to meet with me the following week to review course requirements and policies.

Special thanks: Sections of this syllabus are borrowed with permission from Dr. Patricia Duncan's syllabus for "Disney: Gender, Race, Empire."