The Portrayal of Racial and Ethnical Stereotypes in American Animated Cartoons

• Název práce v češtině: Vyobrazení rasových a etnických stereotypů v amerických kreslených filmech
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The Portrayal of Racial and Ethnical Stereotypes in American Animated Cartoons
• Klíčová slova: Počátky a vývoj americké animace, animovaný film, rasové a etnické stereotypy, Afroameričané v animovaných filmech, produkce animovaných filmů ve druhé světové válce, válečná propaganda, poválečná éra animovaného filmu, studená válka, rasismus, hnutí za občanská práva
• Klíčová slova anglicky: The beginnings and development of American animation, animated cartoon, racial and ethnic stereotypes, African-Americans in animated films, Second World War animated film production, war propaganda, post-war era of animation, Cold War, racism, the Civil Rights Movement
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2011/2012
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 01.02.2012
• Datum zadání: 01.02.2012
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 13.02.2012
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 06.02.2013 09:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 06.01.2013
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 06.02.2013
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

This thesis deals with the depiction of racial and ethnic stereotypes in American animated cartoons particularly from the first half of the twentieth century. It studies the relationship between animation and American culture and examines how animation reflects and shapes American identity in terms of race and how it critiques and promotes American values and attitudes regarding race and ethnicity in particular. Considering the historical, political, legal and cultural background of the contemporary eras of American animation, the thesis analyses the portrayal of racial and ethnic features in animated cartoons from the 1920s to the 1960s. Such stereotypes represent, in my opinion, significant aspects of societal and cultural changes in American society of the examined eras of animation.
The beginnings of the entertainment industry affected the booming era of animation by implementing commonly recognised literary stereotypes of the African-Americans into animated cartoons. This thesis strives to study the development of animated features of the racial stereotypes throughout the contemporary eras. It provides a brief systematic overview of the main eras that have significantly highlighted the start of animation as markers of race and ethnicity. Simultaneously, it discusses the problematic understanding and depiction of racial and ethnic features in animated cartoons due to the contemporary political concerns and legal conditions of the African-American citizens of the USA.
Thematically, this thesis strives to achieve a complex social commentary upon the tackling issues of the contemporary eras in American society such as racism, racial segregation, legal injustice, military propaganda and the Cold War conflict. It examines these topics through reflection of the animated production by selecting and analysing specific (prevalently overtly racist) cartoons involving African-American, Asian, Jewish and Russian stereotypes. Simultaneously, with the help of various secondary literary and critical sources, my thesis examines the relationship between animation and American racial and ethnic identity.

Seznam odborné literatury

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Bogle, Donald: Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks. An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. The Viking Press: New York, 1973.
Brode, Douglas: Multiculturalism and the Mouse. Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2005.
Cohen, Karl, F.: Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. McFarland & Company, Inc.: London, 2004.
Gates, Henry, L.: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. Oxford UP: New York, 1988.
Gilroy, Paul: Against Race. Imagining the Political Culture Beyond the Color Line.

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 2001.
Goldstein, Rhoda, L. ed.: Black Life and Culture in the United States. Thomas Y. Crowell Company: New York, 1971.
Griffith, Robert: “Political Context of McCarthyism”.The Review of Politics, Vol. 33, No. 1. Cambridge University Press. January 1971. November 2012 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1406357>
Lehman, Christopher, P.: American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era. A Study of Social Commentary in Films and Television Programs 1961-1973. McFarland & Company, Inc.: London, 2006.
Lehman, Christopher, P.: The Colored Cartoon. University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst, 2007.
Lindvall, Terry and Ben Fraser:“African American Images in the Warner Bros. Cartoon”, Darker Shades of Animation. Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, 1998.
Morrison, Toni: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Harvard UP: Cambridge, Ma., 1992.
NAACP legal history <http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-legal-history> 2009
Neupert, Richard. “Trouble in the Watermelon Land. George Pal and the Little Jasper Cartoons”.Film Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1. University of California Press. Fall 2001. January 2012 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2001.55.1.14>
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Sharm, Rekha: “Drawn-Out Battles: Exploring War-related Messages in Animated Cartoons.” War and the Media: Essays on News Reporting, Propaganda and Popular Culture. Paul Haridakis et al. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 2009.
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Toll, Robert, C.: “From Folktype to Stereotype: Images of Slaves in Antebellum Minstrelsy”. Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 8, No. 1 Indiana University Press. June 1971. October 2012 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814062>
Wells, Paul: Animation and America. Edinburg University Press: Edinburgh, 2002.
Wonham, Henry, B.: Playing the Races. Ethnic Caricature and American Literary Realism. Oxford University Press: New York, 2004.
Cartoons

· 1925: Disney: Alice Cans the Cannibals
· 1928: Disney: Steamboat Willie
· 1930: WB: Bosko: Congo Jazz
· 1931: WB: Porky Pig: “You Don’t Know What You’re Doin!”
· 1932: Fleischer Studios/Paramount: Betty Boop: Minnie the Moocher
· 1933: Disney: Three Little Pigs
· 1934: WB: Bosko: Parlor Pranks
· 1934: WB: Buddy: Buddy’s Circus
· 1934: WB: Buddy in Africa
· 1934: Fleischer Studios/Paramount: Betty Boop: Lifeguard
· 1940: Paramount: Popeye: Fightin’ Pals
· 1941: Paramount: Jasper and the Watermelons
· 1942: MGM: Blitz Wolf
· 1942: Paramount: You’re a Sap Mr. Jap, Scrap the Japs, Seein’ Red White and Blue
· 1943: WB: Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
· 1943: Leon Schlesinger Production: Tokio Jokio
· 1946: Disney: Song of the South
· 1946: UPA: The Brotherhood of Man
· 1947: MGM: Uncle Tom’s Cabaña
· 1948: John Sutherland Production: Make Mine Freedom
· 1959: Terrytoones: Hashimoto Mouse
· 1959: Jay Ward Production: Rocky and His Friends: Metal Munching Mice
· 1961: UPA: Norman Normal