Þróun og birtingarmyndir úthverfa í Framtíðarlandi Disneylands

Þriðjudaginn 9. apríl kl. 17:00 mun dr. Florian Freytag halda erindi í boði Stofnunar Vigdísar Finnbogadóttur í erlendum málum, á Heimasvæði tungumála í Veröld VHV-021, í Háskóla Íslands. Erindið er á ensku, fjallar um áralanga þróun og birtingarmyndir úthverfa í Framtíðarlandi Disneyland skemmtigarðsins í Anaheim í Kaliforníu og nefnist, A Great Big Beautiful Suburban Tomorrow: Suburbia in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland.

Dr. Freytag er prófessor í amerískum bókmenntum og námsbrautarstjóri Amerískra bókmennta- og miðlunarfræða við deild enskra fræða við háskólann í Duisburg-Essen í Þýskalandi.

Allir eru velkomnir og aðgangur er ókeypis.

Abstract:

Perhaps no other part of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, has changed as much over the past 70 years as Tomorrowland has. Razed and rebuilt numerous times to keep up with the public’s changing attitudes towards and ideas of the future, the section has featured serious educational experiences, whimsical fantasies of space travel, nostalgic retro-futures – and everything in-between. During the first ten to fifteen years following the 1955 opening of theme park, however, Tomorrowland was dedicated to the lifestyle that had brought forth Disneyland itself: suburbia. Through rides, exhibits, and performances such as the “Monsanto House of the Future” (1957-1967), early Tomorrowland celebrated the American suburban ideal of single-family homes, individual fossil-fueled transportation, television, and new and available consumer products. This talk uses the approach of historical theme park studies to explore Tomorrowland’s suburban phase, when the future depicted inside the park could in fact be found just outside of it.

Bionote:

Florian Freitag received his PhD in North American literatures from the U of Constance (Germany) in 2011 and has been a professor of American Studies at the U of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) since 2019. Freitag is the author of The Farm Novel in North America: Genre and Nation in the United States, English Canada, and French Canada, 1845-1945 (Camden House 2013) and Popular New Orleans: The Crescent City in Periodicals, Theme Parks, and Opera, 1875-2015 (Routledge 2021); his other work has appeared in Canadian Literature, American Literary Naturalism, and The Journal of Popular Culture. Together with 12 international colleagues from various disciplines, Freitag has just published Key Concepts in Theme Park Studies: Understanding Tourism and Leisure Spaces (Springer 2023).