MA Thesis: Representations of the past in the Disney comics of Don Rosa

Petra Kotro petra.kotro at gmail.com
Wed Sep 14 07:52:33 CEST 2011


Dear DCML readers,

I've been suscribing to this list for quite a while, but for the first time
I now have something I would like to post to you all. Last spring I finished
my master's thesis titled "Unca Don and Unca Scrooge's Guide to History.
Representations of the Past in the Disney Comics of Don Rosa". It is my
dissertation for the international master's programme in European Heritage,
Digital Media and the Information Society, which I have studied in the
University of Turku in Finland. I have received and excellent grade for the
thesis and graduated as Master of Arts.

Here is the permanent link where you will find an abstract of the thesis and
will also be able to download the full thesis in pdf format:
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe201109132384

In this study I have tried to unfold the various forms and layers of
representations of the past that can be found in the Disney comics of Don
Rosa. The methodology, i.e. tools of the study, comes from comic book
studies, film theory and the study of history culture (or how history is
represented in modern culture).
The first two parts of the thesis serve as introduction and take a look at
what "outside elements", including publishers, genre, the legacy of Barks
etc. affect how the duck universe in Rosa's comics is constructed. It is
mainly aimed at readers who might not be as familiar with Rosa's work as
those reading this mailing list will most likely be. The main chapters of
the thesis take a closer look at the historicalness in stories which are
located in the past even from the duck's point of view, i.e. Scrooge's past,
and then some of the adventure stories which are located in the current time
of the ducks, but which are highly influenced by historical references
(treasure hunting etc.).

All images from Disney comics are © Disney. Permission for the online
publication of the images in this thesis has been received from Disney
representatives.

I hope that some of you will be interested in reading what kind of
interpretations I have made. I also urge you to please remember that my
native language is not English, so I hope you will have patience with
possible mistakes in the grammar.

Should anyone like to comment on the text, discuss the topic in general, or
if you have any questions, feel free to email me at petra.kotro at gmail.com

Best regards,
Petra

-- 
MA Petra Kotro
European Heritage, Digital Media and the Information Society
+358 (0) 44 325 5590
petra.kotro at gmail.com
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