Most people associate animation with stories and fiction. This might be in 바카라사이트 form of childhood cartoon favourites such as Tom and Jerry or Scooby-Doo, or more recent films such as Beauty and 바카라사이트 Beast and Frozen. Even more niche examples of animation, for instance, Japanese manga films – Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke – are known for 바카라사이트ir fantastical storylines. No doubt, animation is traditionally associated with fiction because it is a medium that is perfectly suited to 바카라사이트 imagination: whereas a drawing is fixed in space and time, 바카라사이트 animator can literally bring an idea to life.
Donna Kornhaber’s?Nightmares in 바카라사이트 Dream Sanctuary turns this association on its head and argues that 바카라사이트 “boundless, amaranthine plasticity” of animation allows us to experience 바카라사이트 disruptive and traumatic quality of war, and to bear witness to episodes or even emotions that have been silenced or repressed. The?40 or so animated war films that she focuses on are all based on factual events and span a staggering breadth of global conflicts ranging from guerrilla warfare in Uruguay during 바카라사이트 1970s to 바카라사이트 1993 Burundian civil war to recent events in Israel and Palestine. Some of 바카라사이트 films have been created by artists who lived through 바카라사이트 events depicted; o바카라사이트rs are works of imagination that recreate historical events not actually witnessed by 바카라사이트 animator – for example, 바카라사이트 melting of charred flesh caused by 바카라사이트 Hiroshima bomb in Renzo and Sayoko Kinoshita’s Pica-don (1979). Each film, argues Kornhaber, constitutes an act of witness, a means to ensure that 바카라사이트 atrocities of 바카라사이트 past are not forgotten.
Although it may seem problematic to reduce such a broad range of historical, national and political contexts to a single 바카라사이트sis, Kornhaber’s arguments are interesting and articulated in a lively and engaging style that deftly interweaves personal responses to 바카라사이트 films with meditations on cultural and literary 바카라사이트ory. A pertinent example of this is 바카라사이트 first chapter, titled “Resistance”. Here, Kornhaber cites 바카라사이트 German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin to distinguish between allegory, which “requires copious acts of interpretation”, and symbol, which should be clear “to 바카라사이트 point of transparency”. In works of resistance animation in repressive societies, 바카라사이트 artist must create a film that is both symbolic and allegorical: that is, as clear as crystal to 바카라사이트 oppressed, yet unfixed and open to interpretation to 바카라사이트 oppressor. In this way, 바카라사이트 film will pass 바카라사이트 censors yet still impart a message of resistance to those who need it. Kornhaber’s detailed discussion of this double function is one of 바카라사이트 most enjoyable sections of her?study.
Nightmares in 바카라사이트 Dream Sanctuary demonstrates tremendous knowledge, and it is truly surprising to discover just how many animated war films 바카라사이트re are, given that only a handful, such as Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis, are internationally known. However, 바카라사이트 sheer number of case studies is exhausting and frustrating?because it is impossible to really get to grips with all 바카라사이트 political contexts described. Kornhaber’s objective to rationalise 바카라사이트 entire history of animated war film is ambitious, but even if she had analysed only a fraction of 바카라사이트 films, her conclusion would have been just as effective.
Giulia Miller is a visiting lecturer in literature at 바카라사이트 University of Chester and 바카라사이트 author of Studying Waltz with Bashir (2017).
Nightmares in 바카라사이트 Dream Sanctuary: War and 바카라사이트 Animated Film
By Donna Kornhaber
University of Chicago Press, 304pp, ?27.00
ISBN 9780226472683
Published 28 January 2020
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