Performance, Play, and Resistance: Teaching and Learning at the Happiest Place on Earth
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Description
"This chapter offers ethnographic insight into the 'Happiest Place on Earth,' drawing from over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork at Disneyland with undergraduate students and through the lens of anthropology of performance. Understanding the relationship of the built environment to behavior is the starting point of this investigation, in addition to providing a glimpse into the success that is the Disney enterprise. In this essay, we look at how people create their own perfect day at Disneyland, the multimodal influence of physical space coupled with social media, and the attendant performances accompanying it. We argue that for Disneyland to maintain its illusion, visitors must fully participate in the fantasy that it creates, and essentially learn to perform their own 'happiest' selves. What was originally thought of as simple play, becomes a performance, with the backdrop of social media, creating a perfect arena for selfies required to represent the 'Happiest Place on Earth.'"
ISBN
9781003343875
Publication Date
11-29-2023
Publisher
Routledge
City
New York, NY
Disciplines
Place and Environment | Social Media | Social Psychology and Interaction | Sociology of Culture | Tourism
Recommended Citation
Takaragawa, S., Rutledge, M., Lee, A., & Hunt, J. (2023). Performance, play, and resistance: Teaching and learning at the Happiest Place on Earth. In Lauren Miller & David Syring (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to the Anthropology of Performance. Routledge.
Copyright
Routledge
Comments
In Lauren Miller and David Syring (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to the Anthropology of Performance.
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