Abstract Disney theme parks bring to life—in the most material ways—the exotic mythologies of their diverse cinematic universes. They are among the most American embodiments of what spatial theorist Edward Soja has deemed Thirdspaces. This article suggests that Disney theme parks express a colonial and Orientalist imaginary that seeks to represent the “Other” as part of a contained and systematically organized experiential and affective worldscape that privileges the overt and covert political projects of American exceptionalism. Within this imaginary world, spaces like the Frontier and the Orient become thematic guides that shape how Disney visitors come to understand their relation to otherness and difference in the world beyond the theme park.
Harcey et al. (Tue,) studied this question.