Paperback / softback
December 1, 2019
9780861967193
English
270
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
.89 Pounds (US)
$32.00 USD, £25.00 GBP
v2.1 Reference

Discussing Disney

Edited by Amy M. Davis
Discussing Disney has grown out of a conference of the same name, is a collection of 12 papers on topics which, though diverse in scope, all relate back to one another through their connection to Disney. As the field of Disney Studies continues to grow and evolve, those working within and contributing to it come from a range of backgrounds, including History, Myth Studies, Film Studies, Gender Studies, and Musicology (to name just a few), and therefore examine the outputs of the Disney company - and the company itself – in diverse ways.
Discussing Disney seeks to continue the evolution of Disney Studies as an academic field that has now evolved beyond a discourse that merely, to quote Eric Smoodin (1994), "...[sought} to complicate the notions and uses of Disney discourse that currently make their way to the general public through the popular media". Though this was an important early step in Disney Studies, as it found it necessary to justify its legitimacy within the academy, in the intervening quarter-century, Disney Studies has established itself as a field of Animation Studies (which, simultaneously, has established itself as a branch of Film and Television Studies, as well as Cultural Studies), and is now recognized widely as a valid subject of academic enquiry in its own right. Film Studies as a whole - and Disney Studies as part of that - has also evolved in such a way that it has moved forward from insisting upon an overtly political (and therefore inherently biased) stance, and has taken up a more historically-based and/or cultural studies-based, politically-neutral approach that seeks to contextualize its subject in terms of the conditions in which the company's various outputs - animated shorts and films, theme park attractions, television shows, books, music, merchandising, and the like - have been produced, as well as understanding the audience for whom these were made initially. This is not to say that the field ignores politics - far from it - but rather that it uses political history and political theory as academic basis, rather than as a position from which to debate and opine.
By looking at Disney from some of its many angles - the history and the persona of its founder, a selection of its films (from the blockbuster successes to the less than successful), its approaches to animation, its branding and fandom, and the ways that it has been understood and reinterpreted within popular culture - it is hoped that Discussing Disney offers its readers (and the field of Disney Studies) a more holistic understanding of a company that is arguably one of the most important forces within culture - popular or otherwise - within (so far) the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.

About the Author

Amy M. Davis is a lecturer in Film History at the University of Hull, where she teaches (amongst other things) American Animation History and Disney Studies. She is the author of Good Girls & Wicked Witches: Women in Disney'a Feature Animation and Handsome Heroes & Vile Villains: Men in Disney's Feature Animation, in addition to numerous papers on Disney, Hollywood Animation, and Horror.
John Libbey Publishing

 

9780861967193 : discussing-disney-davis
Paperback / softback
270 Pages
$32.00 USD

Other Titles by Amy M. Davis

Handsome Heroes and Vile Villains

Amy M. Davis
Jan 2014 - John Libbey Publishing
$25.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Good Girls and Wicked Witches

Amy M. Davis
Feb 2007 - John Libbey Publishing
$24.95 USD - Paperback / softback

Other Titles in PERFORMING ARTS / Animation

Animation Behind the Iron Curtain

Eleanor Cowen
Sep 2020 - John Libbey Publishing
$32.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Mary Ellen Bute

Kit Smyth Basquin
Jun 2020 - John Libbey Publishing
$32.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Terrytoons

Gerald Hamonic
Sep 2017 - John Libbey Publishing
$29.95 USD - Paperback / softback
$85.00 USD - Hardback

Other Titles in Animated films

Animated Film and Disability

Slava Greenberg
Feb 2023 - Indiana University Press
$65.00 USD - Hardback
$28.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Animation Behind the Iron Curtain

Eleanor Cowen
Sep 2020 - John Libbey Publishing
$32.00 USD - Paperback / softback

Terrytoons

Gerald Hamonic
Sep 2017 - John Libbey Publishing
$29.95 USD - Paperback / softback
$85.00 USD - Hardback