https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8040-9329
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ABSTRACT
Taking a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis approach, this paper examines the myriad ways in which the Walt Disney World attraction, Pandora – The World of Avatar, exemplifies neoliberal multiculturalism. The different signifying elements and the manner in which they are being put to use are initially described to account for their affordances and the discourses they index. Particular attention is given to the use of materials, texture, and colours and the ways that they represent the ecology of Pandora, the past mining, and the current conservation activities. Having described the chosen semiotic materials, the representation of the Na’vi in relation to the discourses of primitivism, progress and sublimity is then analysed. Constituted as noble savages, it is argued that the Na’vi are both held up as an ideal, untainted by the corruption of the modern world, and at the same time rejected as monocultural Others who have failed to progress.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Ian Roderick is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. His research interests are in Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies with a current focus upon neoliberal organisational forms and their mediation in work and education.
ORCID
Ian Roderick http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8040-9329
Notes
1 The 1918 sculpture, ‘The End of the Trail’ by James Earle Fraser, exemplifies this trope of the vanishing primitive and the ambivalence felt towards reminders of this ‘pre-civilised’ time-space.