1:00P-2:15P  TR  (25) 3 cr
Topic: Animating Imperialism

This course will be organized around five Disney productions -- JUNGLE BOOK, ALADDIN,
LION KING, POCAHONTAS and THREE CABALLEROS -- which we will read as national
allegories that articulate U.S. anxieties about national security, both on the domestic front and on
the international front.  Using a wide range of texts (literature, documents, journalistic accounts,
editorial opinions), we will investigate how the films represent domestic race relations by
displacing them to foreign sites such as the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, and
Latin America.  In addition, we will consider how the production of each film has been
conditioned by specific U.S. foreign policy concerns and the necessity of propagating values that
promote free enterprise and individualism.  We will analyze the different forms of government
represented in these cartoons and the ways in which they enlist common associations with
fascism in order to reinstate kinder, gentler versions of monarchy. Particular emphasis will be
placed on uncovering the mechanisms by which these productions equate women with the land,
thus making the male acquisition of power dependent on sexual conquest.  Finally, we will place
our discussion of these films in the context of Walt Disney's relationship to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.  A tentative list of primary readings includes: Rudyard Kipling's THE JUNGLE
BOOK, TALES FROM A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, and John Smith's HISTORY OF
VIRGINIA. Secondary readings will be drawn from: Stephen Shalom's IMPERIAL ALIBIS,
Howard Zinn's A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, Ariel Dorfman and
Armand Mattelart's HOW TO READ DONALD DUCK, Ariel Dorfman's THE EMPEROR'S
OLD CLOTHES, and Cynthia Enloe's BANANAS, BEACHES AND BASES.  In addition,
students will read a selection of film reviews and editorial opinions.  Course requirements
include: one short paper (6-7 pp) which will be expanded into a seminar paper (10-12 pp) and
two exams.