Stecher, Declan (2023) Animating Gender: A Medium Drawn to Transness. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
This thesis puts animation studies and transgender studies in conversation with one another, resulting in a mutually beneficial dialogue for both disciplines. Though these fields may seem entirely unrelated, they bear many similarities. Animation studies’ central subject, animation, has (somewhat paradoxically) yet to be clearly defined. Karen Redrobe notes, the term animation is “rarely clear,” and this indeterminacy is largely attributed to the medium’s broad boundaries and numerous forms (255). Notably, trans studies’ relation to gender is similarly broad and ambiguous. During a recent seminar, Cáel Keegan responded to a question asking for a trans studies definition of gender by saying, “I usually tell my students, ‘We don’t know what gender is; we just know some things about it’” (“Getting Disciplined: A Conversation”). The similarities do not end there, as both disciplines also share contempt for deterministic logics, complex relations between performance and materiality, and debated links to reality/realism. My research uses these commonalities as a starting point for a dialogue between these fields of study so as to see how their respective insights and scholarship may benefit the other, with a focus primarily on the ways animation may contribute to trans studies’ understanding of gender. By employing a methodology similar to that of Thomas Lamarre’s The Anime Machine, I focus on the tendencies and inclinations of animation to demonstrate how the medium enables astute explorations of gender’s mechanisms, thereby yielding valuable insights into how traditional gender roles are maintained and how they may be reimagined... or perhaps, redrawn.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Fine Arts > Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Stecher, Declan |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | Film and Moving Image Studies |
| Date: | 6 October 2023 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Steinberg, Marc |
| Keywords: | trans studies; animation studies |
| ID Code: | 993201 |
| Deposited By: | Declan Stecher |
| Deposited On: | 05 Jun 2024 15:40 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Jun 2024 15:40 |
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