Walt Disney World: Marxism and Myth Creation

The Disney Corporation is a near-perfect case study in the power and profit that can accompany the harnessing and mobilization of modern society’s relationship with media and spectacle. Rather than attempt the dizzying task of offering analysis of the entirety of Disney’s offerings, this paper will focus exclusively on The Walt Disney World Resort theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios – collectively known as Disney World. These parks offer a useful case study in theories of media events and spectacle, because they combine aspects of media consumption with participation, encouraging visitors to not simply accept the values of the myths Disney creates but to feel like active participants in the creation of them. Classic mass culture theories, Marxist critique, and Barthesian concepts of the Myth can be taken together to gain greater understanding not only of the workings of Disney World, but of the motivations and participation of the million of customers it attracts each year