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Armand Mattelart
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How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic Kindle Edition

by Ariel Dorfman (Author), Armand Mattelart (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 89 ratings
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“ A literary grandmaster.” —Time

First published in 1971 in Chile, where the entire third edition was dumped into the ocean by the Chilean Navy and bonfires were held to destroy earlier editions, How to Read Donald Duck reveals the imperialist, capitalist ideology at work in our most beloved cartoons.

Focusing on the hapless mice and ducks of Disney—curiously parentless, marginalized, always short of cash—Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart dissect the narratives of dependency and social aspiration that define the Disney corpus. Disney recognized the challenge and, when the book was translated and imported into the United States in 1975, managed to have all 4,000 copies impounded. Ultimately, 1,500 copies of the book were allowed into the country, the rest of the shipment was blocked, and until now no American publisher has re-released the book, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. (The original English language edition is now a collector’s item, selling for up to $500 on Amazon.)

A devastating indictment of a media giant, a document of twentieth-century political upheaval, and a reminder of the dark potential of pop culture, How to Read Donald Duck was published in seventeen languages—and is now available once again, together with a new introduction by Ariel Dorfman.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publication date
    July 13, 2021
  4. File size
    4084 KB
  5. Page Flip
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  6. Word Wise
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  7. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for How to Read Donald Duck

"The book shows readers how to look more closely at the vision of the world propagated by Disney―not the films, but the comic strips, which reached a vast global audience before the rise of television. Dorfman and Mattelart offer a lively and persuasive critique, connecting the universe of the comics (in which male characters have uncles and nephews, but few wives or daughters) with Walt Disney’s own unhappy childhood, and paying particular attention to Scrooge McDuck and his relentless pursuit of money." ―The New York Times, Books newsletter

Review

'The book has a rambunctious humor that complements its polemical spirit . . . As Disney has evolved from an animation studio into a corporate behemoth—with theme parks, a cruise line, and content streaming around the world—How to Read Donald Duck and its charge of cultural imperialism rings all the truer'

'A handbook of de-colonization'

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B099GC7X17
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ OR Books (July 13, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 13, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4084 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 89 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Armand Mattelart

    Armand Mattelart

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  2. Ariel Dorfman

    Ariel Dorfman

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    Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean-American author born in Argentina, whose books have been published in over fifty languages and his plays performed in more than one hundred countries. His novels, poetry, essays, plays, stories and screenplays have won numerous awards. Among his works are the plays Death and the Maiden and Purgatorio, the novels Widows and Konfidenz, and the memoirs Heading South, Looking North and Feeding on Dreams. His most recent books are a collection of essays, Homeland Security Ate My Speech: Messages from the End of the World and the forthcoming novel, Darwin’s Ghosts. He contributes to major papers worldwide, including frequent contributions to The New York Times and the New York Review of Books Daily. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, Playboy, Index on Censorship and many other magazines and journals. A prominent human rights activist, he lives with his wife Angélica in Chile and Durham, North Carolina, where he is the Walter Hines Page Emeritus Professor of Literature at Duke University.

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
89 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Disney, Manufactured Innocence, and Global Culture
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2022
Verified Purchase
Inspired and radical analysis of Disney Comics including their influence, scope, themes, and the inevitable consequences of Speaking truth to power.

I really enjoyed reading this, even with no familiarity of the Mickey Mouse comics. The analysis is an application of critical ideas which are useful in thinking about the most toxic aspects of modern media.

Wild how a book about criticizing Donald Duck would be included in a book burning, only for that Iron Hand beneath a velvet glove to later acquire Marvel and Star Wars.

The trend of corporate control over cultural stories limits our self expression.
One person found this helpful
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Dennis E. Sandoval
5.0 out of 5 stars Disney dark hand.
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2021
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Such a great book especially what kind of influence Disney has over young children and young adults. The book gives a break down how latin America is used as a testing site.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Must read
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
Like all great books, this one too should be read and then passed on to a friend. Ariel Dorfman's critique of Capitalism via the duck is second to none. Now that it's finally back in print it's worth picking up a legit copy, although the old boot leg ones were fun too.
2 people found this helpful
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Mike G
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly political cartoons as it turns out
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2018
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Who would of thought that Donald suggested all political opponents be subjected to the butt end of a gun
2 people found this helpful
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Miss Ivonne
4.0 out of 5 stars A very convincing and compelling argument
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2019
Ariel Dorfman — Chilean author, playwright, poet, essayist, human-rights activist — is best known for his riveting play Death and the Maiden. How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic, written with the Belgian sociologist Armand Mattelart before Dorfman had to flee Chile because of General Augusto Pinochet. That means the book is dated in parts, and it has some of that over-the-top flavor of the late 1960s and early 1970s. But Dorfman and Mattelart meticulously (maybe a bit too much) dissects Disney comic books sold in Latin America which uphold the banner of capitalism by justifying Uncle Scrooge McDuck, mocking working stiffs like Donald Duck, and infantilizing Third World peoples as children who need Duckburg (read U.S.) management. And if we take their gold? Well, they weren’t using it for anything, anyway.

A very convincing and compelling argument.

In interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and OR Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, OR Books for reissuing this book translated into English.
3 people found this helpful
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C
3.0 out of 5 stars Pointless Kindle Sample
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023
This is a review exclusively about the Kindle Sample, which is pointless. It only includes introductions and ends before the actual book starts. You don’t get a single page of the actual book.
I will have to look for the book elsewhere to see if the text interests me.
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Bokmalen
1.0 out of 5 stars Full of fabricated disinformation!
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2023
I have not read this book, but from reading the detailed description I can tell the author got it all totally wrong. The Disney comic book stories were never created by some devious Disney corporate entity trying to brainwash the readers. The stories were written and created by independent artists, who weren't even working for Disney! For the first four decades the comic books were published by Western Publishing, who used many different artists. They were never Disney employees. The artists were paid per story, and they had free hands in writing the stories, as long as the stories were not objectionable.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Analyzes the basic assumptions in the D. Duck universe
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2022
Verified Purchase
Not the easiest reading but shows how there are underlying assumptions in US media even things as innocent-seeming as D. Duck.
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