Disney and Orientalism Essay Example
How productive is it to analyse Disney’s Aladdin in the light of the concept of Orientalism?
Europe and America are powerful imperial nations who have, through colonialism since the 18th century, sought to impose their dominant cultural values and political ideology on societies that they regard as ‘subordinate’ to their own. They do this in order to maintain control over radically different cultures who they believe pose a threat to Western interests. Edward Said coined the term ‘Orientalism’ propagating the ideas that much of the fine art, film and literature created by Western artists concerning the East and especially the Islamic Arab world, seek to represent the Eastern culture as having antithetic and thus dangerous values that the West wants to neutralise to maintain world order. These representations are often misleading and prejudiced founded on unreliable knowledge inspiring negative connotations causing a sense of fear amongst Western people of anything different to their way of living. Aladdin (1992) is an animation created by Walt Disney, adapted from the Middle Eastern folktale, The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 nights. Under close scrutiny this animation is a perfect demonstration of the mass Western viewpoint of the Orient namely the Arabian world.
Traditionally fairy tales were folk narratives based on the experiences and beliefs of a collective community communicated orally by a story teller to an audience. The stories were then spread in the same way continuously until they eventually became generic and widespread legends. Being broadcasted orally granted the illiterate the convenience to bear witness to these stories, widening the demographic of the audience. However according to Jack Zipes, over time these stories took on a literary form excluding a large number of uneducated people. From there on the audience took on a different form, shifting from the masses to the educated, wealthier classes. This displacement of readership to the
Europe and America are powerful imperial nations who have, through colonialism since the 18th century, sought to impose their dominant cultural values and political ideology on societies that they regard as ‘subordinate’ to their own. They do this in order to maintain control over radically different cultures who they believe pose a threat to Western interests. Edward Said coined the term ‘Orientalism’ propagating the ideas that much of the fine art, film and literature created by Western artists concerning the East and especially the Islamic Arab world, seek to represent the Eastern culture as having antithetic and thus dangerous values that the West wants to neutralise to maintain world order. These representations are often misleading and prejudiced founded on unreliable knowledge inspiring negative connotations causing a sense of fear amongst Western people of anything different to their way of living. Aladdin (1992) is an animation created by Walt Disney, adapted from the Middle Eastern folktale, The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 nights. Under close scrutiny this animation is a perfect demonstration of the mass Western viewpoint of the Orient namely the Arabian world.
Traditionally fairy tales were folk narratives based on the experiences and beliefs of a collective community communicated orally by a story teller to an audience. The stories were then spread in the same way continuously until they eventually became generic and widespread legends. Being broadcasted orally granted the illiterate the convenience to bear witness to these stories, widening the demographic of the audience. However according to Jack Zipes, over time these stories took on a literary form excluding a large number of uneducated people. From there on the audience took on a different form, shifting from the masses to the educated, wealthier classes. This displacement of readership to the