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Neoliberal Aesthetics of Resistance in the Disney Star Wars Films
Rescripting Rebellion
by Abigail Reed
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Book Presentation:
From 2015 to 2019, the Walt Disney Corporation has produced five theatrical films in the Star Wars galaxy. These films have been met with mixed reactions from audiences and critics alike and sparked seemingly endless public debate about representations of people of color, women, and queer people in 21st century popular film. This book explores the evolving discourse surrounding Disney’s Star Wars films from a political economic perspective and through a lens focusing on the corporate representation of marginalized communities with an aim to critique neoliberal ethics of resistance against fascist regimes. Through exploring the characters of Saw Gerrera, Finn, Poe Dameron, and L3-37, Abigail Reed argues that Disney’s utilization of diverse identities within the franchise is ultimately regressive. Rather than engaging with marginalized communities’ histories or futures, Reed posits, Disney uses these narratives to serve its private interests as an American global media conglomerate and undermine historically effective models of rebellion against imperialism in favor of a model of governance that centers Whiteness and the interests of the Global North.
About the Author:
Abigail Reed is assistant professor of media studies at the University of Mount Union.
Press Reviews:
The author digs deep into the films (and the expanded canon/universe) to find the ways in which the Disney Star Wars universe perpetuates the problems of the original films, seemingly celebrating progressive resistance and increasingly diverse casts, while actually grounding the narrative in whiteness and the white gaze. Reed clearly demonstrates that the imperialist ideologies that undergird the neoliberal entertainment that is contemporary Star Wars only serve to enforce empires, both galactic and Disney’s.
-- Kevin J. Wetmore Jr., Loyola Marymount University; author of The Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films
Neoliberal Aesthetics of Resistance in the Disney Star Wars Films: Rescripting Rebellion provides an excellent critical analysis of the politics of the Star Wars universe drawing upon the most up to date scholarship. It presents readers with a much-needed entertaining, engaging, and insightful reading that asks us to consider that many of the ideologies in the films aren’t simply relegated to a galaxy far far away.
-- Bernadette Marie Calafell, Gonzaga University; author of Monstrosity, Performance, and Race in Contemporary Culture
See the publisher website: Lexington Books
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