THE REPRESENTATION OF INDIGENEITY IN DISNEY MOVIES

»What Makes the Red Man Red?« – »When Did He First Say ›Ugg‹?” – »Why Does He Ask You ›How‹?« All of these are questions that the Lost Boys ask the Native chief in the Disney movie Peter Pan (1953). While the Native American tribe plays a rather minor role in the movie, their portrayal ticks all the boxes of the classic colonial stereotype which sees indigenous people as uncivilized, intellectually underdeveloped, and belligerent. For decades, this was the only representation of Indigenous people in a featurelength Disney movie – that is until in the 1990s, Disney started to increasingly produce films that are not based on European fairy tales, but instead put the spotlight on other, non-white cultures. Pocahontas (1995) was the first Disney movie to feature an indigenous main character, but over the past decades, different representations of indigeneity have appeared on the big screen, some of whose portrayals were based on colonial stereotypes, and others had points of contact with indigenous life in the 21st century. The idea of this tutorial is therefore to take a close look at the representation of indigeneity in Disney films, and its evolution over the course of the company’s history. We will consider the complexity of the different representations, all the way from the origins of indigenous stereotypes, to their continuity in the media of the 20th century, and discuss the question of (supposed) authenticity, as well as take a look at possible common points with contemporary indigenous self-representation. 

TIME/PLACE: BLOCK SEMINAR CONSISTING OF 5 SESSIONS IN TOTAL. THE FIRST SESSION WILL TAKE PLACE VIRTUALLY ON THE 19TH OF APRIL 2022 AT 16:00 O’CLOCK, THE TIME AND DATE OF THE OTHER SESSIONS, AS WELL AS WHETHER THE COURSE WILL TAKE PLACE ONLINE OR ON CAMPUS, WILL SHORTLY BE ANNOUNCED VIA THE QIS. ANSPRECHPARTNER*IN: STEFANIYA; EMAIL: S0789106 [at] STUD.UNI-FRANKFURT.DE (S0789106[at]STUD[dot]UNI-FRANKFURT[dot]DE)