Pocahontas Story Convention Clash of cultures Coming of age romance Spunky hero/heroine Edgerton’s analysis

Image Power Re-telling history Shaping images Disney version becomes “the definitive version”

Global Supertext Pochontas as “supertext” $80 million investment; $1 billion revenues Burger King Payless Shoes Mattel Trailer on “Lion King” tapes (50 million)

Blurred Message Algonquin advice rejected More positive images – sentimental Vague environmental themes You think you own whatever land you land on, The earth is just a dead thing you can claim But I know every rock and tree and creature…

Blurred Message Fictional love story Race, environmentalism, religion downplayed “wrapped in nostalgic fantasy” Flip-flop of traditional hero villain roles Easy scapegoating of dominance

History of the “Other?”

Other History One of the happiest times in the struggle to maintain the little Colony was during the Peace of Pocahontas. When John Rolfe married the young Indian Princess, daughter of the powerful Emperor Powhatan, the colonists enjoyed a peace with the Indians unequaled before her marriage with Rolfe or after her tragic, early death at Land's End, England, where she was buried in the Churchyard. Numerous of her descendants are members of the Jamestowne Society. And through their memberships we remember Princess Pocahontas' immense contribution to Jamestowne. Without the Peace of Pocahontas, that short interval of time may well have been spent upon disastrous warfare instead of the building of the settlement that would begin the Nation.

Remaking Pocahontas

The White Man’s Indian? Social construction of beauty standards and race Indians “look and sound” like whites Pocahontas: “aerobicized, Native American superbabe”

“The finest creature the human race has to offer”

History Lessons Pocahontas seen as “peace offering” to Algonquin protest of “Disney America” Visits to Jamestown up 60 percent