Overview

If there is an opposite to the Gothic, it may seem to be the carefully crafted “family friendly” image of Disney. However, through careful attention to the pervasiveness of Gothic elements in all of Disney’s productions, ranging from its theme parks to its films and television programs, the contributors to Disney Gothic reveal that the Gothic, in fact, serves as the unacknowledged motor of the Disney machine. Exploring representations of villains, ghosts, and monsters, this book sheds important new light on the role these Gothic elements play throughout the Disney universe in constructing and reinforcing conceptions of normalcy and deviance in relation to shifting understandings of morality, social roles, and identity categories. In doing so, this book raises fascinating questions about the appeal, marketing, and consumption of Gothic horror by adults and particularly by children, who historically have been Disney’s primary audience. In this edited collection exploring Disney’s dark side, attention to Disney’s Gothic clarifies the ways through which Disney media properties construct and reinforce conceptions of normalcy and deviance in relation to shifting understandings of morality, social roles, and identity categories.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lorna Piatti-Farnell ,  Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock ,  Murray Leeder ,  Terry Lindvall
Publisher:   Lexington Books
Imprint:   Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.70cm
Weight:   0.549kg
ISBN:  

9781666907209

ISBN 10:   1666907200
Pages:   266
Publication Date:   15 June 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse Lorna Piatti-Farnell and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock Part 1: Dark Beginnings and Gothic Technologies Chapter 1: Silly Spookiness: The Skeletons of Early Disney Murray Leeder Chapter 2: From Gothic to Gags: Disney’s Comic Deconstruction of Death Terry Lindvall Chapter 3: Hidden Histories: The Many Ghosts of Disney’s Haunted Mansion Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock Chapter 4: Monsters on the Mouse-Tube: The Gothic Horror Cinematic Tradition and the Disney Channel Original Movie Jay Bamber Chapter 5: Sinister Surveillance: Threatened Youth in Disney's Watcher in the Woods and Something Wicked This Way Comes Carl H. Sederholm and Kathy Merlock Jackson Chapter 6: The Game is Playing Itself: Fear, Technology, and the Disney Slasher Gwyneth Peaty Part 2: Monsters and Magic Chapter 7: Disney’s Tetratologies: Animated Discourses on Monsters and Heroes Kevin J. Wetmore Chapter 8: ’Who is the monster and who is the man?’: Disney’s Medieval Gothic in The Hunchback of Notre Dame J.S. Mackley Chapter 9: Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Friends on the Other Side: Magic, Cultural Echoes, and the Gothic Trajectories of Difference in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog Nancy Johnson-Hunt and Lorna Piatti-Farnell Chapter 10: The Human/Animal Divide: Feral Children, Liminalities, and the Gothic in Disney’s The Jungle Book and Tarzan Antonio Sanna Chapter 11: Primitive Life and Animated Death: Fantasia’s ‘Rite of Spring’ as Ecogothic Christy Tidwell Part 3: Something Wicked Chapter 12: Maleficent: Monstrosity, Truth, and Post-Truth in Disney’s Transmedia Fairyverse Joan Ormrod Chapter 13: Mother Knows Best: Questioning the Moral and the Immoral in Disney’s Tangled Angelique Nairn Chapter 14: The Vampire Queen of the Disney Scene: The Vampiric, Gothic Excess of Ursula from The Little Mermaid Simon Bacon Chapter 15: Gorgeous, Vicious and a “Little Bit Mad”: Queer-Gothic and Excessive Desire in Cruella Blair Speakman

Reviews

"""At a time when woke Disney seems to have lost its touch, this new collection mines Gothic gold, as it demonstrates how the best Disney films, both live and animated, have crafted a complex world of good and evil that speaks meaningfully to a broad audience. Thanks to Jeffrey, Lorna, and their insightful contributors for revealing how horror, excess, menace, and a sense of helplessness are woven into so much of the Disney 'family' tradition."" --J.P. Telotte, Georgia Tech"

Author Information

Lorna Piatti-Farnell is professor of media and cultural studies at Auckland University of Technology. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock is professor of English at Central Michigan University and associate editor in charge of horror for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

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