Critical Approaches to Anime, Fandom, and Conventions

Catalog description

This course explores anime as a cultural phenomenon, its fanbase, thematic elements, and historical contexts. Students analyze major works and genres in connection to wider sociopolitical issues of class, race, gender and identity. Assignments include critical reflections, tests and visual analyses to foster a deeper appreciation of anime as both entertainment and cultural artifact. Some of the screenings and reading materials for this course deal with mature and explicit scenes and/or content such as, but not limited to, representations of nudity, sex and depictions of sexual acts, as well as problematic representations of race and gender. In our class, these issues will be contextualized and discussed through an analytical lens and in relation to secondary reading materials. Students will receive credit for AAS 4908 or JPS 4908, not both. These courses may substitute for each other with the F-replacement option.