Global Anime: Culture, Theory and Media Ecology of Animation

This seminar studies Japanese animation (anime) in a global media environment by closely engaging with a set of theoretical frameworks that critically probe animation as a technological condition and a cultural form. We will study the history, aesthetics, politics, and theory of anime and its socio-cultural formations. The focus is to analyze the forms and idioms of anime in relation to changing media ecologies and their impacts. Students are expected to explore the technological and cultural characteristics of anime in tandem with the studies of media theory and history, and to expand their interest in anime to wider questions such as posthumanism, techno-orientalism, cyborg feminism, media convergence, and participatory cultures.