Anime's Identity: Performativity and Form beyond Japan

Anime's global reach raises questions about who makes it and how it reflects the problematics of globalization. Stevie Suan's book "Anime's Identity" explores how anime reflects the tensions of transnationality, offering an alternative type of creativity based on repetition and variation. It merges theories from media studies and performance studies to connect anime to questions of dislocation on a global scale, creating a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 14 December 2021
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Anime has become an integral part of Japanese culture, but its global reach raises intriguing questions. Who creates anime outside of Japan, and how can this help us reevaluate our understanding of cultural production? In her book "Anime's Identity," Stevie Suan explores how anime, regardless of its production location, reflects the complexities of globalization. The result is a thought-provoking examination of anime and the tensions of transnationality.

Far from celebrating the individualistic "originality" often praised in national creative industries, anime reveals a different kind of creativity based on repetition and variation. Suan examines anime from fresh perspectives, including how it functions as a media brand, the complexities of anime production across national borders, the self-reflexive nature of anime character acting, and the diverse modes of transnationality presented in various anime works.

Anime's Identity skillfully blends theories from media studies and performance studies, introducing innovative formal concepts that connect anime to issues of dislocation on a global scale. This book offers a transformative new lens for analyzing popular media, challenging our preconceptions and expanding our understanding of the world.

Weight: 536g
Dimension: 217 x 143 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517911782