Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, Collaboration

by Jennifer A. Kokai University of South Florida, Tom Robson

Overview

Writing in a time of heightened political anxiety–and when accusations of nationalism, authoritarianism, and proto-fascism have increasingly divided Americans into factions– the authors use their influential performance studies-based ‘tourist as actor’ framework to unpack the ways that Disney parks and their guests co-create performance of implicit Americanness in the 21st century. This book argues that the roles that guests choose to perform-- accepting, declining, negotiating, or overwriting scripts offered to them by the Disney theme park experience-- ultimately reveals much about the nature of the contemporary United States. Focusing primarily on Walt Disney World in Florida, and using case studies on music, geography and ecology, sports, families, and politics, these chapters illuminate the always complicated and often contradictory presentations and performances of America within Disney parks in the deeply contested twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666932409
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	09/15/2024
Series:	Studies in Disney and Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276

About the Author

Jennifer A. Kokai is director of the School of Theatre and Dance and the Endowed Chair of the Holloway and the Brit at the University of South Florida.

Tom Robson is assistant teaching professor in Purdue University’s Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Two Fourths of July at the Magic Kingdom

Chapter One: Voices of Liberty: Disney Parks’ HarmonioUS and CacophonoUS Sonic Performances of American Musical Culture

Chapter Two: Labyrinths and Hyperspace: Escapist Geography and Absented Ecology in American Disney Parks

Chapter Three: “If You Can’t Run Fast, Run Fabulous”: The Evolution of Sporting at Disney and of American Conceptions of “Athlete”

Chapter Four: “Ohana Means Family?” Who Is Included in a Disney Family and Who Is Forgotten

Chapter Five: From Yippies to MAGA Provocateurs: Politicized Tourists Crash the Kingdom

Conclusion: Fist Fights and Friendship Bracelets: Disney Parks as Conflicted Commons

Editorial Reviews

Jennifer A. Kokai & Tom Robson’s Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, Anxiety is a must-read for anyone interested in the serious study of Disney’s theme parks. Astutely weaving together moments of lived personal experience with a range of academic approaches and concepts, the book offers a timely and essential analysis of the ongoing political, social and cultural tensions being played out within the spaces of Walt Disney World.

Rebecca Williams