Description
Book SynopsisAnalyzing histories of film reception, convergence, and race relations over seven decades, this pioneering book undertakes a superb, multifaceted reading of one of Hollywood’s most notorious films, Disney’s Song of the South.
Trade ReviewDisney’s Most Notorious Film: Race, Convergence and the Hidden Histories of Song of the South (University of Texas, 2012) does more than dissect a film and the pros and cons around it. In its own way, it reveals that Song of the South, more or less by accident, holds a mirror to American views on race, with beauty or the lack thereof completely in the eyes of the beholder. * PopMatters *
This study is meticulously researched and current on contemporary research, and though it reads slowly…the payoff is worth the work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- S. R. Kozloff, Vassar College * Choice *
This excellent study of the controversy surrounding Disney’s
Song of the South is an insightful and thought-provoking analysis of one of the studio’s most controversial films…Jason Sperb has produced an important analysis of one of popular culture’s most hotly debated products. * The Historian *
Jason Sperb’s
Disney’s Most Notorious Film quickly overcomes any concern that there might be nothing new to say about
Song of the South by demonstrating how surprisingly “persistent” the film has been. * The Journal of American History *
While Sperb's conclusions of conscious racism are debatable, his meticulous documentation of
Song of the South merchandising through sixty years and its other cultural references…make
Disney's Most Notorious Film an essential reference tool to those interested in
SotS-iana. * Animation World Network *
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. Conditions of Possibility: The Disney Studios, Postwar "Thermidor," and the Ambivalent Origins of Song of the South
- Chapter 2. "Put Down the Mint Julep, Mr. Disney": Postwar Racial Consciousness and Disney's Critical Legacy in the 1946 Reception of Song of the South
- Chapter 3. "Our Most Requested Movie": Media Convergence, Black Ambivalence, and the Reconstruction of Song of the South
- Chapter 4. A Past That Never Existed: Coonskin, Post-racial Whiteness, and Rewriting History in the Era of Reaganism
- Chapter 5. On Tar Babies and Honey Pots: Splash Mountain, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," and the Transmedia Dissipation of Song of the South
- Chapter 6. Reassuring Convergence: New Media, Nostalgia, and the Internet Fandom of Song of the South
- Conclusion
- Appendix. Timeline for Song of the South and Its Paratexts
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
