Not just sheer pleasure: Critiquing animations and their scope in children’s socialisation

Abstract

As the title suggests, the dissertation focusses on critiquing animations to understand their scope in children’s socialisation, as to what extent animations could offer a type of content that possesses an ‘edutainment’ value. As a result, animations (1) attempt to reinforce some ‘intrinsic’ values related to a variety of subjects/themes, including personal growth, meaningful relationships, and social responsibility, (2) providing children with an opportunity to rehearse those values that are deemed key elements for their socialisation. To understand this more closely, we have analysed animations from five different perspectives, leading the dissertation to be designed as a ‘patchwork quilt’ (Wibben, 2011). This metaphor implies that the five chapters are autonomously distinct and deal with exclusive frameworks that are later contextually assimilated in the conclusion to provide the reader with a complete picture that vindicates animations’ scope in children’s socialisation. Chapter I looks at the framework of the ‘odyssey’ employed in animations as a metaphor for personal growth and identity-formation. Chapter II focusses on how Doraemon reconceptualises the features of the classical Greek/Aristotelian form of ‘tragedy’ to develop its own postmodern critique of the Seven Deadly Sins through the image of its transgressive protagonist. Chapter III studies the role of ‘utopianism’ in children’s superhero narratives that inspires a more critical mode of hoping and envisions social progress and welfare. Chapter IV is founded upon the concept of the ‘feminine aesthetic’ to (1) analyse the transition and development of animated women’s representation from passivity to subjectivity and individuality, and (2) briefly explore the evolving representations of new, subversive masculinities. Chapter V emphasises the significance of ‘anthropomorphism’ in children’s media, and is informed by the literary genre of animal autobiography to critique animal-centric narratives as tales of animal liberation that reposition and rehabilitate the ‘human-animal kinship, bestowing ‘the animal’ with a voice.