Japanese Animation & New Media

(4 Credits)

This course looks at the terms and conditions of Japanese animation (primarily anime) as, in many ways, a new and unique mode of expression. The course is framed by terms in which anime might, or might not, shift earlier modes of expression, both literary and animated: the prevalence of mythology in animation and the tension between mythology and ideology; the importance of genre; and the impact of ostensibly old and new media on narrative structure and reception. Implications of these conditions for thinking about Japanese culture are also considered.