{"title":"迪士尼僵尸三部曲中的黑色怪物和白色修辞","authors":"Linsay M. Cramer, Gabriel A. Cruz","doi":"10.1080/15295036.2023.2244574","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Drawing from strategic whiteness and guided by racial rhetorical criticism, this article analyzes Disney’s Zombies movie trilogy. Situated within the context of anti-Critical Race Theory policies and the use of children and K-12 education as political pawns, the timely release of Zombies as a postracial narrative motivates this research. Through the positioning of humans, zombies, werewolves, and aliens as fixed symbolic racial groups within the imagined utopian United States town of Seabrook, Zombies presents an ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that sustains white power and fluidity. This rhetorical analysis presents three conclusions. First, the imaginary utopian town of Seabrook is a postracial space developed around stereotypical racialized characters and narratives that contribute to the historical marginalization of Indigenous, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Black people. Second, through the protagonist Zed and the cinematic construction of zombies, the trilogy perpetuates a postracial anti-Blackness via the inscription of a policed and controlled monstrosity onto Black identity. Third, the second protagonist, Addison, engages in the propagation of whiteness via voyeuristic racial tourism and white purity. In total, the children’s mediated narrative upholds white centrality and power obviated by contemporary DEI discourses and representations.","PeriodicalId":47123,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Media Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Black monstrosity and the rhetoric of whiteness in Disney’s Zombies trilogy\",\"authors\":\"Linsay M. Cramer, Gabriel A. Cruz\",\"doi\":\"10.1080/15295036.2023.2244574\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"ABSTRACT Drawing from strategic whiteness and guided by racial rhetorical criticism, this article analyzes Disney’s Zombies movie trilogy. Situated within the context of anti-Critical Race Theory policies and the use of children and K-12 education as political pawns, the timely release of Zombies as a postracial narrative motivates this research. Through the positioning of humans, zombies, werewolves, and aliens as fixed symbolic racial groups within the imagined utopian United States town of Seabrook, Zombies presents an ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that sustains white power and fluidity. This rhetorical analysis presents three conclusions. First, the imaginary utopian town of Seabrook is a postracial space developed around stereotypical racialized characters and narratives that contribute to the historical marginalization of Indigenous, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Black people. Second, through the protagonist Zed and the cinematic construction of zombies, the trilogy perpetuates a postracial anti-Blackness via the inscription of a policed and controlled monstrosity onto Black identity. Third, the second protagonist, Addison, engages in the propagation of whiteness via voyeuristic racial tourism and white purity. In total, the children’s mediated narrative upholds white centrality and power obviated by contemporary DEI discourses and representations.\",\"PeriodicalId\":47123,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Critical Studies in Media Communication\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.1000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-08-08\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Critical Studies in Media Communication\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"98\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2023.2244574\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"COMMUNICATION\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Studies in Media Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2023.2244574","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
Black monstrosity and the rhetoric of whiteness in Disney’s Zombies trilogy
ABSTRACT Drawing from strategic whiteness and guided by racial rhetorical criticism, this article analyzes Disney’s Zombies movie trilogy. Situated within the context of anti-Critical Race Theory policies and the use of children and K-12 education as political pawns, the timely release of Zombies as a postracial narrative motivates this research. Through the positioning of humans, zombies, werewolves, and aliens as fixed symbolic racial groups within the imagined utopian United States town of Seabrook, Zombies presents an ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that sustains white power and fluidity. This rhetorical analysis presents three conclusions. First, the imaginary utopian town of Seabrook is a postracial space developed around stereotypical racialized characters and narratives that contribute to the historical marginalization of Indigenous, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Black people. Second, through the protagonist Zed and the cinematic construction of zombies, the trilogy perpetuates a postracial anti-Blackness via the inscription of a policed and controlled monstrosity onto Black identity. Third, the second protagonist, Addison, engages in the propagation of whiteness via voyeuristic racial tourism and white purity. In total, the children’s mediated narrative upholds white centrality and power obviated by contemporary DEI discourses and representations.
期刊介绍:
Critical Studies in Media Communication (CSMC) is a peer-reviewed publication of the National Communication Association. CSMC publishes original scholarship in mediated and mass communication from a cultural studies and/or critical perspective. It particularly welcomes submissions that enrich debates among various critical traditions, methodological and analytical approaches, and theoretical standpoints. CSMC takes an inclusive view of media and welcomes scholarship on topics such as • media audiences • representations • institutions • digital technologies • social media • gaming • professional practices and ethics • production studies • media history • political economy. CSMC publishes scholarship about media audiences, representations, institutions, technologies, and professional practices. It includes work in history, political economy, critical philosophy, race and feminist theorizing, rhetorical and media criticism, and literary theory. It takes an inclusive view of media, including newspapers, magazines and other forms of print, cable, radio, television, film, and new media technologies such as the Internet.