Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, Anxiety - Hardcover

by Jennifer A. Kokai (Author), Tom Robson (Author)

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.

Author Biography

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.