Anime, Religion and Spirituality

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78179-110-3
Verlag: Equinox Publishing Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 258 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 398 g

Barely a century has passed since anime (Japanese animation) was first screened to a Western audience. Over time the number of anime genres and generic hybrids have significantly grown. These have been influenced and inspired by various historical and cultural phenomena, one of which -Japanese native religion and spirituality - this book argues is an important and dominant. There have always been anime lovers in the West, but today that number is growing exponentially. This is intriguing as many Japanese anime directors and studios initially created works that were not aimed at a Western audience at all. The mutual imbrication of the profane and sacred worlds in anime, along with the profound reciprocal relationship between 'Eastern' (Japanese) and 'Western' (chiefly American) culture in the development of the anime artistic form, form the twin narrative arcs of the book. One of the most significant contributions of this book is the analysis of the employment of spiritual and religious motifs by directors. The reception of this content by fans is also examined.The appeal of anime to aficionados is, broadly speaking, the appeal of the spiritual in a post-religious world, in which personal identity and meaning in life may be crafted from popular cultural texts which offer an immersive and enchanting experience that, for many in the modern world, is more thrilling and authentic than 'real life'. In the past, religions posited that after human existence on earth had ceased, the individual soul would be reincarnated again, or perhaps reside in heaven. In the early twenty-first century, spiritual seekers still desire a life beyond that of everyday reality, and just as passionately believe in the existence of other worlds and the afterlife. However, the other worlds are the fantasy landscapes and outer space settings of anime (and other popular cultural forms), and the afterlife of digital circuitry and the electronic impulses of the Internet. These important new understandings of religion and the spiritual underpin anime's status as a major site of new religious and spiritual inspiration in the West, and indeed, the world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Buljan

Buljan, Katharine

Cusack

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Animationsfilme, Zeichentrickfilme
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Japanese Modernity and the Manga and Anime Art Forms Chapter 2 The New Life of Old Beliefs: Religious and Spiritual Concepts in Anime Chapter 3 From Realistic to Supernatural: Genres in Anime Chapter 4 Power Within: The Fan's Embrace of Profane and Sacred Worlds in Anime Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Katharine Buljan is a Sydney-based scholar and visual artist/animator. She was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2007 and has completed a Master of Animation at the University of Technology, Sydney (2008) and a Master of Arts (Honours) at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean in 1998. She holds Diploma in Painting (1989-1993) from the Accademia di Belle Arti (Rome). Katharine has been a sessional/guest lecturer at the universities in Sydney and at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. She has published in the area of animation and visual arts.
Katharine has exhibited her work in Australia, Italy, Hong Kong and Sweden, and has received a number of art prizes. In 2013, she was selected as a finalist for the 62nd Blake Prize for Religious Art. Her main research interest is link between art/animation and world religions, spiritualities and mythologies. This research also inspires her art practice.

Carole M. Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. She trained as a medievalist. Since the late 1990s she has taught in contemporary religious trends, publishing on pilgrimage and tourism, modern Pagan religions, new religious movements, and religion and popular culture. She is the author of The Essence of Buddhism (Lansdowne, 2001), Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Ashgate, 2010), and The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), 2011. She has published widely in edited volumes and scholarly journals, and is the editor (with Christopher Hartney) of Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Garry W. Trompf (Brill, 2010) and (with Alex Norman) of Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production (Brill, 2012). With Christopher Hartney (University of Sydney) she is editor of the Journal of Religious History(Wiley) and with Liselotte Frisk (Dalarna University) she is editor of the International Journal for the Study of New Religions (Equinox). She serves on the Editorial Boards of the journal Literature & Aesthetics, the Sophia Monograph Series (Springer), and the Histories of the Sacred and Secular monograph series (Palgrave Macmillan).