124261 KO Critical Media Analysis (2021W)

This course will familiarise students with the history, contexts, fandoms and art forms of Japanese animation, by focusing on a series of canonical film and television works from the 1990s to the present day. We will focus on the canonical works of this period (Akira, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Attack on Titan etc) through 3 interconnected theoretical points of focus. First, ecocriticism, in which we will analyse the politics and worldviews behind these works' animist and vitalist depictions. Secondly, posthumanism, in which we will analyse their vision of a modernity in which the distinction between the human and the machine is becoming increasingly blurred. Thirdly, the apocalypse, in which we will discuss how these works depict the end of the world and images of revelation and transformation in order to explore a series of interrelated cultural, social, political and philosophical concerns.