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A Cultural Study of Disney's Star Wars : Theorizing Circuit of Culture This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A cultural study of Disney's Star Wars : theorizing circuit of culture Vaidya, Ruta 2019 Vaidya, R. (2019). A cultural study of Disney's Star Wars : theorizing circuit of culture. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/97807 https://doi.org/10.32657/10220/48571 Downloaded on 27 Sep 2021 12:18:59 SGT A CULTURAL STUDY OF DISNEY’S STAR WARS: THEORIZING CIRCUIT OF CULTURE RUTA VAIDYA SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 2019 i A CULTURAL STUDY OF DISNEY’S STAR WARS: THEORIZING CIRCUIT OF CULTURE RUTA VAIDYA School of Social Sciences A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 ii Statement of Originality I hereby certify that the work embodied in this thesis is the result of original research, is free of plagiarised materials, and has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. 16/03/2019 . Date Ruta Vaidya iii Supervisor Declaration Statement I have reviewed the content and presentation style of this thesis and declare it is free of plagiarism and of sufficient grammatical clarity to be examined. To the best of my knowledge, the research and writing are those of the candidate except as acknowledged in the Author Attribution Statement. I confirm that the investigations were conducted in accord with the ethics policies and integrity standards of Nanyang Technological University and that the research data are presented honestly and without prejudice. 15.March2019 Date A/P Patrick Williams iv Authorship Attribution Statement Please select one of the following; *delete as appropriate: *(A) This thesis does not contain any materials from papers published in peer- reviewed journals or from papers accepted at conferences in which I am listed as an author. 16/03/2019 . Date Ruta Vaidya v Acknowledgements Finally, this thesis is written! With a few hiccups and hurdles and some ‘not-so-edgy’ roads along the way, this journey has been quite fulfilling. This thesis would not see the light of day had it not for the support and encouragement from these valuable individuals. A big shout out to Prof. Patrick Williams, the Obi-Wan Kenobi to my thesis- my supervisor, mentor and the best critic ever to whom I turned during tumultuous times and said, “Help me, Patrick. You’re my only hope”. Each time, he advised me to ‘Use the Force’, which only strengthened this project and made this journey worthwhile. A big thank you to Prof. Sam Han who has provided timely and valuable inputs and has always encouraged me to ‘stay on target’. Thank you to Dr. William Proctor whose expertise on this topic added fresh insights to this project. Cheers and thank you to all my friends, classmates, and family who ‘never told me the odds’. And last but not the least, I owe this thesis to two most important people- my son who was born during this bitter-sweet phase and who makes my life so meaningful; and my husband who stood like a rock throughout this journey and took care of our baby while I saw this project through. I could only embark on this adventure and successfully complete it with all your support. You all have been my true ‘heroes’ in this journey. May the Force be with all of you! And me! vi Table of Contents Summary .............................................................................................................. ix Glossary ............................................................................................................... xi Chronology of the feature films ........................................................................... xii Chapter 1- Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................. 1 Cultural significance .................................................................................................... 3 Statement of the problem ............................................................................................. 9 Research goals and significance of the study .............................................................. 12 Outline of the thesis ................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2- A Discussion of morality, myth and the circuit of culture .................19 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 19 Moral-cultural repertoires ........................................................................................ 23 Role of popular culture and mediated representations in influencing people’s morality ................................................................................................................................... 27 Sociological and cultural relevance of trust and loyalty ............................................. 31 Role of cultural industries in producing morality ...................................................... 34 Defining myth ............................................................................................................ 35 Role of the myth in culture, society and popular culture ............................................ 40 Disney’s mythic rhetoric ............................................................................................ 44 Conceptualizing the circuit of culture ........................................................................ 46 Chapter 3- Research Methodology ......................................................................56 Research goals ........................................................................................................... 56 Methodology: Analysis of discourses related to cultural texts .................................... 58 Usefulness of Lucasfilm’s discourses related to cultural texts .................................... 60 Defining discourse and the role of discourse analysis ................................................. 63 Methods and data collection ...................................................................................... 66 Data sources .............................................................................................................. 69 Coding and data analysis ........................................................................................... 75 Process of data coding and analysis ........................................................................... 76 Research ethics .......................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 4- Contextualizing Star Wars as a cultural narrative .............................80 Introduction to the Star Wars films ............................................................................ 80 Examining the transmedia storytelling and expansion of the franchise ...................... 83 Introducing George Lucas and the historical and political trajectories ...................... 87 An examination of regulation (politics), production and consumption (economy) ...... 91 A discussion of the cultural and social rhetoric .......................................................... 93 An application of the CoC moments to Disney ........................................................... 95 Disney’s role as a cultural producer and its control over facets of production ........... 99 An analysis of auteur and authorship ...................................................................... 101 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 105 Chapter 5- CoC moment- ‘Production’ of morals ............................................. 106 Introduction............................................................................................................. 106 Producing morals within American context ............................................................. 109 Analysis of the socio-cultural factors........................................................................ 112 Production of trust and loyalty in films .................................................................... 114 Monomyth and The Force as storytelling tools ......................................................... 115 vii A discussion and the problematization of authorship ............................................... 120 Creating trust and loyalty within occupational structures ....................................... 124 Trust and loyalty through the production of transmedia ......................................... 128 Connection between George Lucas and Disney ........................................................ 130 Disney's role in reproducing Star Wars' morals ....................................................... 134 Moral ambiguity in Disney’s sequel trilogy .............................................................. 136 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 139 Chapter 6- CoC moment- ‘Representation’ of morals ....................................... 141 Introduction............................................................................................................. 141 ...............................................................................................................................
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