How to Read Donald Duck

Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic

Ariel Dorfman, Armand Mattelart

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781786804785
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

First published in 1971, How to Read Donald Duck shocked readers by revealing how capitalist ideology operates in our most beloved cartoons. Having survived bonfires, impounding and being dumped into the ocean by the Chilean army, this controversial book is once again back on our shelves. Written and published during the blossoming of Salvador Allende's revolutionary socialism, the book examines how Disney comics not only reflect capitalist ideology, but are active agents working in this ideology's favour. Focusing on the hapless mice and ducks of Disney, curiously parentless, marginalised and always short of cash, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart expose how these characters established hegemonic ideas about capital, race, gender and the relationship between developed countries and the Third World. A devastating indictment of a media giant, a document of twentieth-century political upheaval, and a reminder of the dark undercurrent of pop culture, How to Read Donald Duck is once again available, together with a new introduction by Ariel Dorfman.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following annotated bibliography has been prepared to assist the reader in locating additional Marxist studies on the two principal themes treated in this book: cultural imperialism, and the comic book.

With few important exceptions, most of the material on cultural imperialism in the bibliography comes from the Latin American countries, particularly Cuba. To our knowledge, there are relatively few Marxist analyses from the United States concerning the reactionary effects of the spread of the “American Dream” and its related cultural merchandise on the other peoples of the world. However, because of the struggles of these peoples, this is changing, and hopefully this change will be reflected in the quantity and quality of United States’ Marxist analyses and actions in the domain of cultural imperialism; for our small part, we would welcome additions to this list, either forthcoming or overlooked.

The word “culture” has been understood in the political and broadest sense of the word: it refers to the (mass) communication of all social and economic values which support and shape the word “Culture” in the limited, capitalist “Fine Arts” sense of the word.

The entries follow standard bibliographic form, and have been arranged alphabetically by author, except when more than one relevant essay appears in a book, magazine, or from a conference; in which case it is listed under the main title, alphabetically. Where a text has been reprinted, we have tried to list it each time, but have only annotated it once.

The abbreviations also follow standard bibliographic notation. However, it should be noted that “U.S.” means the “United States” and not “Uncle Scrooge”, whereas the notoriety of some of the other abbreviations, such as CIA, USIA, USIS, USAID, ITT, AP, UPI, ABC, CBS, NBC and RCA, should not require any explanatory note: at this point in history it is well known what they stand for.

The entries have been extracted from the ongoing bibliographic publication Marxism and the Mass Media: Towards a Basic Bibliography, edited by the International Mass Media Research Center, the communications research division of the publisher, International General.

ABEL CASTANO, Ramón. La Publicidad: Un Freno al Desarrollo. Bogota: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1971. A wide-ranging analysis and description of the manipulative nature of advertising; its development, place, and techniques in the context of capitalist monopoly production, and its role in the retardation of human development. With appendix of statements on the function of advertising by its masters.

“Appareils Idéologiques d’Etat et Luttes de Classes: Chili 1970–73” Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), 254–5, Dec. 1974-Jan. 1975, pp. 5–32. An interview with Armand MATTELART by Serge DANEY and Serge TOUBIANA on the ideological apparatuses during the Chilean Popular Unity government from 1970–3; the press, radio, TV, cinema, and education: the “mass” strategy of the Chilean Right and U.S. imperialism in its fascist use of the cultural apparatus, and the contradictions of the Left in its ideological analyses and political practice in opening up the cultural apparatus to the masses and responding to the enemy.

ASSMANN, Hugo. Evaluación de Algunos Estudios Latinoamericanos sobre Comunicación Masiva, con Especial Referencia a los Escritos de Armand Mattelart. San Jose, Costa Rica: XI Congreso Latinoamericano de Sociología, June 1974. 43 pp. A two-part analysis on the study of mass communications in Latin America: the first is a review and evaluation of the different schools of Latin American mass communications research since the early 1960s and its domination by European and U.S. imperialist values (particularly scientific faith); and the second is an evaluation of the work of Armand and Michèle Mattelart (from 1967–1973 in Chile), with a series of formulations calling for the politicization of mass media research values.

AUTORENKOLLEKTIV. Wir machen unsere Comics selber: Erfahrung mit Comics in Unterrichts. Gulner DUVE, ed. Berlin: Basis Verlag, 1974. A textbook for teachers and students on how to make comics so that children will not be dependent on the products of the mass culture industry. In two sections; the first is an analysis of the present comic book industry, and their consumption, ideology and pacifying function in capitalist society; and the second concerns the planning of classes for teaching children how to make their own comics. Many descriptive illustrations.

BARRAUD, Hervé; S. De SEDE. “La Mythologie d’Astèrix” La Nouvelle Critique (Paris), 26, Sept. 1969, pp. 35–40. The ideology of the French comic strip “Astèrix”: the popularity of the comic strip as an extension of the 19th century serial novel, and Astèrix as expression of the mythic history and values of eternal French bourgeois morality, law, and order.

BEGLOW, Spartak. Millionäre machen Meinung von Millionen. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Marxistische Blatter, 1971. A description and analysis of the world-wide capitalist press, radio and TV system, and their interconnections. With a list of 277 trusts, news agencies, and publishers composing the international capitalist network. (Chapter 17 published in English: _____, “The Press and Society” The Democratic Journalist (Prague), 1971, pp. 12–16).

BUHLE, Paul. “The New Comics and American Culture” in: Literature and Revolution, C. Newman and G.A. White, eds. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973, pp. 367–411. Art, the history of the U.S. comic, and the new underground comics as product and reflection of U.S. culture.

CALVET, Louis-Jean. Linguistique et Colonialisme: Petit Traité de Glottophagie. Paris: Payot, 1974. The role of language and the study of language and its use in the process of imperialist expansion; linguistic imperialism and its place as part of ideological domination of oppressed peoples; the “superiority” of colonial language, and the denigration, marginalization, and extermination of the “exotic” peoples. Contents: The theory of language and colonialism from the 16th thru 19th centuries; dialects in the colonial process; the linguistic traces of colonialism; the colonial discourse on language; and language and national liberation. With a section of specific studies, and bibliography.

CARABBA, Claudio. Il Fascismo A Fumetti. Florence: Guaraldi, 1973. A study and documentation on the fascist comic books produced in Italy from the 1930s to 1944, and certain anti-communist comics from the 1960s and 70s, as seen across the fascist interpretation of history, heroes, colonial conquest, and anti-bolshevism, with the reproduction of three stories; “I Ragazzi di Portoria,” “I Tre di Marcelle,” and “Di un’Altra Razza.” Illustrated, with a list of fascist comic book titles and characters.

CARMO, Alberto. “Doing Business with Latin American Brains” The Democratic Journalist (Prague), 6, 1974, pp. 15–18. The importation by imperialist countries, particularly the U.S. of scientists, technicians, and professionals from the Third World.

The Chilean Road to Socialism, Dale L. JOHNSON, ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1973. An anthology of 65 texts, by U.S. and Chileans writers, on all aspects of Chilean development during the Popular Unity government (written and edited before the fascist coup).

Relevant:

POLLOCK, John C.: David EISENHOWER “The New Cold War in Latin America: The U.S. Press and Chile” (pp. 71–86). The hostile press coverage in the U.S. of the Popular Unity government as expressed by 6 U.S. daily newspapers during 1970–2, across five general themes: Allende’s isolation, Left threats to political stability, the responsible positions of the middle and upper classes, the irrational nature of protest against U.S. multi-national corporations, and the aura of crisis around Allende.

HUMBERTO, Máximo. “Yankee Television Control” (pp. 120–4). The U.S. TV networks ABC, CBS, and NBC–RCA and how each has their role in the U.S. control of Latin American TV and the creation of the mindless consumer.

Cine Cubano (Habana), 4, 63/65, pp. 80–94. three articles on cultural imperialism:

“La Industria Cultural Seduce al Capital Monopolista Yanqui” U.S. economic and governmental infiltration into Latin American culture: the work of the advertising, news, and USIA Agencies.

BARAHONA M., Hernán “Chile Entre Dos Fuegos: Cine y TV” U.S. control of Chilean TV and cinema.

“Publicidad Yanqui en las Elecciones Chilenas” U.S.–financed advertising during the Chilean elections.

_____, 66/67, pp. 68–89, 93.

ALMEYDA Clodomiro. “Hacer de la TV Intrumento de Elevación Moral y Liberación Humana” The human tasks of the TV in Chilean and Latin American development.

FATRAC (Frente Antimperialista de Trabajadores de la Cultura). “Documento Denuncia: De Cómo USA la Música como Arma de Penetración” A well-documented report and analysis on the infiltration of Latin American musical and cultural life by the U.S. Wide-ranging and specific, with bibliography.

“Cinéma et Multinationales,” in: Ecran (Paris), 24, April 1974, pp. 38–48.

MATTELART, Armand “Hollywood en Vente?” Brief note on the change of ownership in the U.S. film industry from 1968–1972.

GUBACK, Thomas “Le Cinéma U.S.: Un Business International.”

COCKCROFT, Eva. “Abstract Expressionism: Weapon of the Cold War” Artforum (New York), XII, 10, June 1974, pp. 39–41. Brief, well-researched article on the U.S. avantgarde art, and its use in support of U.S. Cold War policy and cultural penetration: the interconnected interests of the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the CIA, and the Rockefellers (forthcoming in an expanded version, International General, NY, late 1975).

Communications Technology and Social Policy. G. Gerbner; L. Gross; W.H. Melody, eds. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1973. Anthology, relevant:

NORDENSTRENG, Kaarle; Tapio, VARIS. “The Non-Homogeneity of the National State and the International Flow of Communications” (pp. 393–412). The historical development of communications and the role of consciousness in a world in transition.

MATTELART, Armand. “Mass Media in the Socialist Revolution: The Experience of Chile” (pp. 425–440). The structure of information power during the Popular Unity government, and the problems confronted by the State Publishing House Quimantú in transforming the print media: comics, romance magazines, and the press.

Comunicación y Cultura (Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires), 1, July 1973. First issue of magazine concerned with the role of the mass media and education in the context of Latin American political struggles. Relevant:

BAZIN, Maurice. “La ‘Ciencia Pura’ Instrumento del Imperialismo Cultural: El Caso Chileno” (pp. 74–88). Abstract science and its role as part of cultural imperialism.

MATTELART, Armand. “El Imperialismo en Busca de la Contrarrevolución Cultural: ‘Plaza Sésamo,’ Prólogo a la Telerepresión del año 2.000” (pp. 146–223). An analysis of the creation, organization, and ideological content of the U.S. TV program “Sesame Street” as a model for the development of future U.S. domination of world education (published separately: _____, same title, Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1974. 88 pp.)

_____, (Buenos Aires only), 2, March 1974.

MATTELART, Michèle; Mabel PICCINI. “La Televisión y los Sectores Populares” (pp. 3–76). The TV and its role during the Popular Unity government: as part of ideological struggle; mass culture, distribution and technological myths; the relations between political vanguard and cultural apparatus; and a far-ranging study on the use and effects of the TV on the Chilean working class, with statements and interviews, and many facts and figures.

NOMEZ, Nain. “La historieta en el Proceso de Cambio Social: Un Ejemplo de lo Exótico a lo Rural” (pp. 109–124). The problem of mass culture and the comic strip in a period of political change, and the experience of the Chilean State Publishing House Quimantú.

ACOSTA, Leonardo. “El Barroco de Indias y la Ideología Colonialista” (pp. 125–158). The role and forms of cultural domination as integral part of colonial conquest of Latin America in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

BARRACLOUGH, Solón. “Ideología y Práctica de la Capacitación Campesina” (pp. 159–176). Agrarian development, and the concept of the qualified worker as it is dominated by U.S. criteria.

_____, 3, 1975. 230 pp. Six articles and six documents on the USIA in Latin American and Vietnam; the U.S. satellite program for education in Latin America; governmental mass media policy in Argentina and Peru:

“F...