East Asian Animation: History, Theory, and Aesthetics

Undergraduate

This course explores the history of East Asian Animation and highlight key works from Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Soviet Union. The course is divided into two parts: analyzing the theoretical basis of animation studies and animation as an aesthetic form and a week-to-week focus on nations of East Asia. A major topic of this course is the tension between the nation-state as the site of animation production and arbiter of national culture vs. animation production as a transnational process. It also analyzes how animation theory has tried to exceed the bounds of the national and navigate the global, regional, and local. Some themes related to this explored during the course are socialist utopianism vs. socialist realism; otaku and Japanese postmodernism; traces of Japanese nationalism and Empire in anime; Chinese and North Korean national animation as “anti-revisionist” interventions; South Korea, North Korea, and Taiwan as global hubs of animation production. Both historically important and contemporary films are screened during the course as well as short films as part of lectures. No prior knowledge or language ability is required and all films will have English subtitles. HU TTh 11:35am-12:50pm