“Where Happily Ever After Happens Every Day”: The Medievalisms of Disney’s Princesses

Abstract

The Disney Middle Ages: A Fairy-Tale and Fantasy Past examines the intersection between the products of the Walt Disney Company and popular culture's fascination with the Middle Ages. The Disney Middle Ages have come, for many, to figure as the Middle Ages, forming the earliest visions of the medieval past for much of the contemporary western (and increasingly eastern) imaginary. The Disney Middle Ages explores Disney's accounts of the Middle Ages and their political and cultural ramifications, analyzing how these re-creations of a fairy-tale history function in modern society.