The Animation Studies Reader

by Nichola Dobson (Editor)

The Animation Studies Reader brings together both key writings within animation studies and new material in emerging areas of the field. The collection provides readers with seminal texts that ground animation studies within the contexts of theory and aesthetics, form and genre, and issues of representation. The first section collates key readings on animation theory, on how we might conceptualise animation, and on some of the fundamental qualities of animation. New material is also introduced in this section specifically addressing questions raised by the nature, style and materiality of animation. The second section outlines some of the main forms that animation takes, which includes discussions of genre. Although this section cannot be exhaustive, the material chosen is particularly useful as it provides samples of analysis that can illuminate some of the issues the first section of the book raises. The third section focuses on issues of representation and how the medium of animation might have an impact on how bodies, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity are represented. These representations can only be read through an understanding of the questions that the first two sections of the book raise; we can only decode these representations if we take into account form and genre, and theoretical conceptualisations such as visual pleasure, spectacle, the uncanny, realism etc.

352 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2018

Reviews

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've done a fair amount of academic poking around animation studies and some of its related fields, but I'd never actually sat down to engage the fundamental arguments and ideas of that particular branch of film studies until this book. What I was pleased to learn is that there is a lot of fantastic work being done on a really wonderful mode of film, information, and entertainment; what I was surprised to learn was how really new the field of animation studies actually is, and what remains to be done by others interested in studying those arts. This volume acts as a wonderful, gentle, but comprehensive introduction to the growing, changing field of animation studies with a host of excellent articles and book chapter excerpts, presented in a nice collection that is actually a great book to hold in your hand and read (unlike many academic compendiums). I appreciated how the various authors nicely presented history and general theoretical outlooks on animation while also indicating points of expansion and areas for future growth. Too often these kinds of collections settle into covering the basics and sort of leaving you on your own, but this book is a nice entryway and pathway for scholars curious about how to engage animation. The final third of the book maybe gets a bit bogged down in chapters that are hyper-specific criticisms of certain animations, but after two sections of really nice, theory-driven chapters that's maybe not the worst thing, either.

[Parker Stenseth]

Wonderful collection--alongside Animating Film Theory, I plan to recommend this as a primer for animation theory. It covers the standard historical, narrative, and representational bases quite nicely, but it also features several crucial essays on topics like animated documentaries and animation in industrial/educational films--both necessary to talk about the medium's development and its place in broader image culture.

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reader collects articles and chapters that would be of interest to those who working in the field of animation studies. These are quite dry, so they would be of limited interest to general readers. Perhaps it is best to think of this as a textbook assigned to undergraduates in the field.