Document Type
Article
Abstract
[First paragraph]
Addressing how knowledge grows, develops and fits together is arguably one of the most testing tasks facing scholars. In a world where knowledge is increasingly viewed as a commodity -- and the teaching of that knowledge is often done in an instrumentalist fashion -- we need to come to a fuller understanding of how knowledge areas inter-relate. Such a mapping needs to move beyond simplistic models of disciplinarity (and its bolted-together variants, such as interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and the like) and explore the ways that a wide range of people in an equally diverse set of contexts might constitute a more or less coherent field. This paper contributes to such an ongoing project by examining the ways that Animation Studies can be viewed in relation to these debates. As a putative new discipline its history needs to be excavated and carefully delineated. But we cannot do this without acknowledging its close relationship with cognate fields, such as Film, Media and Cultural Studies. Where exactly does Animation Studies fit in with these other areas? My suggestion is that we need to develop a discursive view of apparently multi-sited fields of knowledge, like Animation Studies: rather than making what are ultimately false calls for recognition of yet another free-standing discipline, the dialogic and dialectical relationship between fields of knowledge must be seen as the central focus.
Repository Citation
Ward, Paul. "Animation Studies, Disciplinarity and Discursivity." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 3, no. 2, 2003, pp. 1–21. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol3/iss2/6
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