Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Animated film history'

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of history and culture on the passage of the comic book to the animated film. Although the comic book has both historical and cultural components, the latter often undergoes a cultural shift in the animation process. Using the Smurfs as a case study, this investigation first reviews existing literature pertaining to the comic book as an art form, the influence of history and culture on Smurf story plots, and the translation of the comic book into a moving picture. This study then utilizes authentic documents and interviews to analyze the perceptions of success and failure in the transformation of the Smurf comic book into animation: concluding that original meaning is often altered in the translation to meet the criteria of cultural relevance for the new audiences.

Animation has been an integral part of the entertainment industry for over seventy years. What is it about animated films that make them just as, or even more, captivating than live-action films? While animation is most typically associated with fantasy or escapism, there is certainly an element of reality exploration that causes animation to be more believable. Through examination of this and previous creative projects, it was found that a balance of fantasy and reality exploration, along with other key factors, help to make animation successful in relating to the viewer.<br>Department of Telecommunications

The association between nostalgia, nature and disenchantment has been and still is a very common trope in cultural and literary studies (Saler 138) within the scope of modernity. In fact, it has almost become “a cliché of our time” (Saler 138) in which people often view modern experience as an oppressive status of disillusionment rather than a liberating condition of enlightenment. Since this thesis aims to open up and point at different dimensions of modernity and become “part of a grandiose modernist project yet to be finished” (Hu 23-4), I would like to use Miyazaki’s works to argue that modernity is never a simple, one-sided condition of being ‘disenchanted’ as proclaimed by many scholars. In order to pinpoint some of the contradictory impulsions and potentialities of the experience of modernity, this thesis would first start with a brief overview on the ideas of ‘disenchantment’ and ‘nostalgia’ and their relations to the experience of modernity. The second part would be a general introduction to Miyazaki’s anime, briefly introducing his works in terms of style, content, characterization and such. In particular, I would like to point out how Miyazaki’s works have created alter-tales about disenchanted modernity by showing the multiple facets of modern life and exploring the possibility to (re)enchant modern experiences through his childlike protagonists and the fantastical form of anime. Part three to five would be comprehensive textual analyses about Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Spirited Away (2001) respectively, examining their relationships with and responses to the ambivalent experiences of modernity. The concluding part of this thesis would reflect on the contribution as well as the limitation of my research in regards to the writing of modern experiences and the ongoing modernist project.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Literary and Cultural Studies<br>Master<br>Master of Arts

This thesis provides an overview of the various ways in which select marginalized identities are represented within the twenty-first century American musical film. The first intention of this thesis is to identify, define, and organize the different subgenres that appear within the twenty-first century iterations of the musical film. The second, and principal, intention of this thesis is to explore contemporary representations of African-Americans, women, and queerness throughout the defined subgenres. Within this thesis, key films are analyzed from within each subgenre to understand these textual representations.

This thesis is mainly concerned with uncovering the meanings and associations embedded in the field of popular culture production in Japanese and European sociocultural contexts, using a comparative approach to unearth the effects, materials, and paradigms of the technological and scientific discourses during the Scientific Revolution. Linking the fields of the anthropology of technology and science, popular culture, and material culture studies, the thesis offers a historical overview of the development of machines and visual technologies in the Edo period, arguing that visuality is the key to delayering the cultural history of technology and science in Japanese popular culture, animation in particular. The objective of this work, therefore, is to look at the assemblage of the scientific, technological, and philosophical discourses to unveil the cultural processes between optical regimes, scientific practices, and popular culture. In its emphasis on the interconnectedness of visual technologies and the field of popular culture production, the thesis asserts that scientific development, particularly under the influence of the Scientific Revolution and Japanese Rangaku scholarship, is closely tied with the function of entertainment in Japanese society. With the understanding of technology as a total social phenomenon that interlocks the material and the symbolic in a complex network, which produces meanings and associations, the thesis further stresses the view that intellectual history cannot be separated from material culture studies; it also grapples with a number of existing scholarships on the history of science, particularly their inattentiveness to cultural histories in their historical surveys of scientific development. Finally, this work closely examines Oshii Mamoru's Ghost in the Shell and its sequels and the anime TV series Psycho-Pass to explore the tangled responses to the ideologies of the Euro-American mode of modernity.

This thesis provides an overview of the various ways in which select marginalized identities are represented within the twenty-first century American musical film. The first intention of this thesis is to identify, define, and organize the different subgenres that appear within the twenty-first century iterations of the musical film. The second, and principal, intention of this thesis is to explore contemporary representations of African-Americans, women, and queerness throughout the defined subgenres. Within this thesis, key films are analyzed from within each subgenre to understand these textual representations.

Ce travail cherche à comprendre comment le cinéma d’animation en Tunisie, une pratique artistique « en marge », à la fois dans son monde de l’Art et dans la société dans laquelle elle est produite, puisse s’ériger en tant que vecteur de contestation dans un contexte autoritaire. Il s’agit de tracer l’histoire méconnue de cet art depuis sa genèse et sur toute la période étudiée (1965-1995). Une histoire qui se confond avec celle des changements sociopolitiques du pays sous les deux régimes autoritaires postindépendance. Nous entendons dégager la ou les forme(s) de contestation en interrogeant, d’une part le matériau filmique etd’autre part les sources orales, mémoires vivantes de cet art. Nous confrontons deux discours celui du régime (du centre) et celui de l’art (la périphérie) afin de révéler le mécanisme de formulation du propos contestataire dans le cinéma d’animation tunisien<br>This work seeks to understand how animation in Tunisia – an artistic activity on the fringes, both in the art world and in the society in which it is produced - became a vehicle for political protest within an authoritarian context. It recounts the hitherto untold history of this art form together with the socio-political changes under the two post-independence authoritarian regimes. We intend to reveal the form(s) of protest by examining, on the one hand, the cinematic material and, on the other, live testimonials, first-hand memories of the art form. We confront two different types of rhetoric, that of the regime (core values) and the art of animation(marginal culture) to reveal the mechanisms used to formulate the protest statements in Tunisian animation

Cette thèse se propose d’explorer, à travers la figure de l’émigré russe dans le cinéma et la caricature de presse parus en France dans l’entre-deux-guerres, les différentes représentations de la Russie. Il s’agit, tout d’abord, de la Russie en exil, une Russie mosaïque regroupant de nombreuses ethnicités venues de différents endroits de l’ancien Empire russe, comprenant, en elles-mêmes, une large palette sociale (des aristocrates et notables aux personnes sans rang, ni profession), professionnelle (artistes, hommes politiques, militaires, ouvriers), politiques (monarchistes, libéraux, révolutionnaires socialistes, anarchistes), religieuse, éducative et culturelle. Nous nous intéressons alors aux façons dont cette Russie en exil est perçue et représentée par les artistes nostalgiques de leur passé, caricaturistes et cinéastes émigrés, mais aussi par les réalisateurs français passionnés de l’orientalisme et de la « mode russe » qui en découle. En deuxième lieu, nous appréhendons les manières dont les artistes émigrés traitent de la Russie soviétique, à savoir : des dirigeants bolcheviques, des Soviétiques ordinaires et de leur quotidien. Nous nous penchons, également, sur la notion d’expérience communicable, employée par Walter Benjamin, et sur les différentes façons dont l’expérience de la vie en exil pourrait être transmise au public émigré et français<br>This thesis proposes to explore different representations of Russia through the figure of the Russian emigrant in the film and press cartoons published in France in the inter-war period. First of all, it discusses Russia in exile, a mosaic Russia which contains numerous ethnicities hailing from various locations of the former Russian Empire. These ethnicities thus comprise a large palette of social features (from aristocrats and notable people to those without any titles or professions), professional ones (artists, politicians, military men, workers), political ones (monarchists, liberals, socialist revolutionaries, anarchists), religious, educational and cultural ones. We are therefore interested in the ways that this Russia in exile is perceived and represented by the artists who are nostalgic of their past, emigrant caricaturists and film-makers, as well as French film directors who were passionate about Orientalism and the subsequent “Russian fashion”. Secondly, we capture the ways in which the emigrant artists deal with Soviet Russia, namely the Bolshevik leaders, ordinary Soviet people and their everyday lives. We also look at the notion of communicable experience, which is employed by Walter Benjamin, and different ways in which the life in exile could be communicated both to the emigrant public and to the French one

Cette thèse porte sur les notions d'archétypes, caricatures et stéréotypes et leurs applications aux personnages noirs dans le film d'animation américain du XXe siècle. C'est en 1907 qu'est diffusé aux Etats-Unis le tout premier film d'animation mettant en scène un personnage noir. Ce dernier, appelé coon, était l'héritier d'une longue tradition de représentations péjoratives qui visaient à maintenir les Noirs dans une position d'altérité et d'infériorité face aux Blancs. Les premiers exemples de ces représentations se retrouvent notamment dans le comic strip américain dont les artistes ont d'abord été dessinateurs, puis « animateurs ». Toutefois, une grande partie des traits physiques et de l'idéologie qui sous-tendent à la création de ces personnages avait déjà été déterminée au XIXe siècle par des disciplines pseudo scientifiques consacrant « l'infériorité » des Noirs sous couvert d'une fausse science, surtout la physiognomonie et la phrénologie, des disciplines émettrices de ce type d'observations et de dessins qui connurent un succès important aux Etats-Unis après avoir été diffusées en Europe. Une autre source d'influence dans l'édification des stéréotypes noirs des films d'animation est celle du spectacle vivant, en particulier les numéros de vaudeville et du Blackface (spectacles populaires de la fin du XIXe siècle aux années 1960 durant lesquels des comédiens blancs grimés en Noirs parodiaient ces derniers). Les personnages noirs du cinéma d'animation reprenaient ces trois influences dont les traces sont largement perceptibles jusqu'aux années 1940. Les représentations péjoratives des Noirs dans l'animation évoluent lentement à partir de 1941 et la conscription des soldats Africains-Américains durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Bien qu'une majorité de films d'animation continuent de mettre en scène des personnages caricaturaux, des changements commencent à poindre légèrement, notamment à travers l'exploitation de la musique bebop. L'après-guerre marque une transition définitive entre anciennes caricatures et nouvelles représentations. La montée des revendications des Africains-Américains en faveur d’une égalité de traitement créé une ambivalence entre leurs velléités réformatrices et la persistance d'archaïsmes dépréciatifs dans le cinéma d'animation. Au gré des avancées sociales obtenues par le Mouvement pour les Droits Civiques et du combat mené par les partisans du Black Power, les personnages noirs du cinéma d'animation, puis du dessin animé télévisuel intègrent ces nouvelles dynamiques positives mais également conformistes, parfois déconnectées des réalités des Africains-Américains. Les représentations les plus en adéquation avec leur époque proviennent finalement du milieu du film d'animation underground des années 1970 où se côtoient prostituées et bonimenteurs autour d'un sous-texte social inédit<br>This thesis focuses on the notions of archetypes, caricatures and stereotypes as well as their application to black characters in twentieth-century American animated films. In 1907, the very first animated film depicting a black character, “Coon”, was screened. “Coon” came from a long tradition of pejorative depictions that targeted African Americans and defined them down as “others” and “inferiors”. The first regular examples of these representations emerged in American comic strips and were drawn by cartoonists who soon became “animators”. A large part of the ideology and physical representations leading to the creation of these characters was inspired by pseudo-scientific theories that sanctioned black people “inferiority”, graphically and ideologically in the name of pseudo-sciences, including first and foremost physiognomy and phrenology, which first gained influence in Europe before reaching the United States. Vaudeville and Blackface Minstrelsy performances – popular shows that lampooned Black people and were performed by white actors in make-up from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1960s – also played a significant role in the creation of black otherness. The black characters in animated films were a reflection of these three cultural influences and remained unchanged until the 1940s. The negative depictions of African Americans in animated films began to evolve slowly when the United States entered World War II. Slow changes were perceptible through the use of bebop music in such films, although the vast majority of those films remained full of caricatures of Black people. Irrevocable changes rose in the post-war period, from old caricatures to new representations. Increasing demands by African Americans for equal rights created an ambiguity between their integrationist aspirations and the remaining visual traces going back to the period of slavery. The gradual legal gains achieved through their fight in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements led to a new televisual and cinematic imagery, which showed more positive sides of Blackness, despite the persistence of a conformist tone, sometimes out of touch with African American reality. The most faithful reflections of African American experience ultimately came from underground animated movies in the 1970s, in which prostitutes and hustlers added to a new social subtext

Parce qu’ils sont les premiers à avoir réalisé un long métrage en images de synthèse, Toy Story, dont le succès artistique et populaire – qui ne se dément pas - a été le déclencheur d’un nouveau cycle de films d’animation, les studios d’animation Pixar occupent une place importante dans le paysage culturel actuel, et représentent une bonne opportunité d’étudier la manière dont les objets des industries culturelles sont créés et consommés. Au travers d’une étude du dessin animé américain, abordé du point de vue historique et esthétique, il s’agit tout d’abord de déterminer l’évolution du système de production et des techniques, qui sont en lien avec les évolutions stylistiques, pour comprendre dans quel système émergent puis s’établissent les films d’animation Pixar. Alors que la manière dont les films sont faits et dont ils sont vus a changé à la fin du XXe siècle, la trilogie Toy Story sera l’objet privilégié d’une étude des mutations du cinéma, et des usages qui en sont faits. Par le statut culturel élevé spécifique à Pixar, par l’ambiguïté textuelle qui les caractérisent et qui sont l’occasion d’interprétation très variées, ou grâce aux nouveaux modèles de féminité et de masculinité qu’ils proposent, les films d’animation tendent à devenir des films "comme les autres", laissant aux spectateurs la possibilité de les appréhender comme ils le veulent<br>As the first studio to have created a CGI animated feature film, Toy Story, whose success initiated a new era in animation production, Pixar Animation Studios occupy a significant position in the actual cultural landscape, and present a great opportunity to study the ways in which objects from cultural industries are produced and consumed. By examining the animated cartoon, from historic and aesthetic perspectives, I intend to determine the evolution of the production system and of the technics, which are related to stylistic changes as well. This study will help us understand the studio system in which Pixar’s movies have taken place. While the ways films are made and seen changed at the end of the last century, Toy Story’s films are the privileged object for an analysis of the transformations of cinema and its uses. By Pixar’s high cultural status, by the textual ambiguity that characterized them or the new representations of masculinity and femininity that they share, animated feature films tend to become "ordinary films", letting viewers grasp them as they want

The Thesis is focused on life and work of Břetislav Pojar. It is also focused on animated film and gives instructions for basic animation technique, which could be utilized in Art at elementary school. The life of Bretislav Pojar and his work are introduced in the theoretical part of this Thesis. The history of Czech and world animated film and its creators are also introduced. My own lessons are included in a project, which is described in practical part. This project is focused on animation and it was realized in Art. This part also included the reflection from implementation of project. There are photograps of children working on their animations at the end of this Thesis.

Przedmiotem dysertacji są autorskie filmy animowane realizowane przez kobiety w strukturach polskiej kinematografii. Są one badane jako odrębne w całości polskiej filmowej produkcji w technice animacji (autorka nie bada filmów dla dzieci, propagandowych, reklamowych, oświatowych), stąd w istocie przedmiot badań stanowi niewielki procent filmów animowanych realizowanych w Polsce. Badania prowadzone są dwutorowo, łącząc analizę filmów z analizą instytucji kinematograficznej i kultury produkcji autorskiego filmu animowanego w Polsce. Dysertacja składa się z czterech rozdziałów. Rozdział I, pt. Rozpoznanie problematyki pracy wprowadza w podstawowe problemy związane z przyjętą w tekście terminologią, wprowadza także w ogólny kontekst genderowy specyficznych dla filmu animowanego problemów związanych z jego produkcją, projektowaniem i dystrybucją. Zasadniczy korpus pracy stanowią rozdziały, które w porządku chronologicznym analizują ewolucję strategii wchodzenia polskich twórczyń na pozycje samodzielnych reżyserek animacji autorskiej. Proces ten pokazany jest jako element ewolucji pola polskiego filmu animowanego (w znaczeniu jakie polu kulturowemu nadał Pierre Bourdieu) – przy założeniu, że autorskie filmy animowane w swoich strategiach artystycznych nie różniły się diametralne od tych realizowanych w rozwiniętych kinematografiach. Analizowane jest także miejsce animacji w instytucji kinematograficznej, problematyka genologii i separacji/odrębności filmu animowanego w Polsce i na świecie. W historii polskiej animacji wyróżniono trzy okresy, każdemu z nich odpowiada rozdział dysertacji. Są to: czasy Polski Ludowej (1944-89), czasy kryzysu i transformacji (1989-2005), oraz współczesność (od 2005). Taką periodyzację można uznać za typową dla analiz dotyczących historii polskiego filmu (cezury dwóch pierwszych okresów stanowią wydarzenia polityczno-ustrojowe, w trzecim przypadku cezura ma charakter instytucjonalny – powołanie Polskiego Instytutu Sztuki Filmowej). Dla tematu dysertacji i przedmiotu jej badań periodyzacja ta ma znaczenie przede wszystkim ze względu na to, iż w historii filmu animowanego każdy z wymienionych okresów oznacza inną technologię (okres 1944-1989 to technologia analogowa, 1989-2005 to okres łączenia technologii analogowej z początkami cyfrowej, od roku 2005 branża przechodzi na zaawansowaną technologię cyfrową). A konkretnie – w okresie, którego dotyczy każdy z trzech rozdziałów inaczej przebiegały procesy i procedury developmentu, produkcji i dystrybucji filmów. Autorka analizuje, jak w każdym z tych okresów technologia wpływała na obraz genderowy branży – nie tylko poprzez stosunki pracy tworzące zawodowe hierarchie, ale także poprzez ewolucje procesów produkcji kapitału symbolicznego. Cechą szczególną rozprawy jest poprzedzenie każdego z rozdziałów podrozdziałem wstępnym, zarysowującym międzynarodowe tło, czyli pozycję i osiągnięcia kobiet w filmie animowanym na świecie w okresie, którego dany rozdział dotyczy. Podrozdziały te zawierają pogłębione analizy twórczości i strategii artystycznych kobiet z różnych rejonów geograficznych (zarówno z państwach demokracji ludowej, jak i z Zachodu, z krajów wolnorynkowych), które wówczas w filmie animowanym stały się liderkami, bądź twórczyniami „credited alone”. Zabieg taki jest badawczą protezą, która ma za zadanie ukazanie szerokiego spektrum problemów instytucjonalnych i technologicznych towarzyszących wchodzeniu kobiet na pozycje mistrzowskie w przypadkach, które - w przeciwieństwie do polskich reżyserek - są dobrze udokumentowane, przede wszystkim poprzez rekonstrukcję cyfrową i dostępność ich filmów.<br>The subject of the dissertation are original animated films made by women in the structures of Polish cinematography. They are studied as separate from the whole of Polish film production in the animation technique (the authoress does not study films for children, propaganda, advertising, or educational films), thus in fact the subject of the research constitutes a small percentage of animated films made in Poland. The research is conducted in a bilateral manner, combining the analysis of films with an analysis of the cinematographic institution and the culture of original animated film production in Poland. The dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter I, Identification of the problematic of the work, introduces basic issues related to the terminology adopted in the text, as well as the general gender context of the specific problems of animated film production, design and distribution. The main body of the work consists of chapters which, in chronological order, analyse the evolution of the strategy of Polish female filmmakers' ascent to the position of independent directors of auteur animation. This process is shown as an element of the evolution of the Polish animated film field (in the sense given to the cultural field by Pierre Bourdieu) - with the assumption that auteur animated films in their artistic strategies were not diametrically different from those produced in developed cinematographies. The place of animation in the cinematographic institution, the issue of genology and the separation/individuality of animated film in Poland and the world are also analysed. In the history of Polish animation, three periods have been distinguished, each of which corresponds to a chapter of the dissertation. These are: the times of People's Poland (1944-89), the times of crisis and transformation (1989-2005), and the present day (from 2005). Such periodisation may be considered as typical for analyses concerning the history of Polish film (the caesuras of the first two periods are political and political events, while in the third case the caesura is of institutional nature - the establishment of the Polish Film Institute). For the topic of the dissertation and the subject of its research, this periodisation is of significance primarily due to the fact that in the history of animated film, each of the periods mentioned signifies a different technology (the period between 1944 and 1989 was analogue technology, 1989-2005 was a period of combining analogue technology with the beginnings of digital technology, and since 2005 the industry has been moving towards advanced digital technology). More specifically, the processes and procedures of film development, production and distribution were different in the period covered by each of the three chapters. The authoress analyses how, in each of these periods, technology influenced the gender image of the industry - not only through labour relations forming professional hierarchies, but also through the evolution of processes of symbolic capital production. The distinctive feature of the dissertation is that each chapter is preceded by an introductory subchapter, outlining the international background, i.e. the position and achievements of women in animated film worldwide during the period to which the chapter relates. These sub-chapters contain in-depth analyses of the work and artistic strategies of women from different geographical regions (both from the countries of popular democracy and from the West, from free-market countries), who became leaders or 'credited alone' creators in animated film at the time. Such a procedure is a research prosthesis, which aims to show the broad spectrum of institutional and technological problems accompanying women's ascension to master positions in cases which, unlike Polish female directors, are well documented, above all through digital reconstruction and the availability of their films.

Black representation in American animated short films circularly evolved between 1928 and 1954. Blackface minstrelsy at first figured heavily in black representation. The increasing prominence of African-American movie stars and technological improvements in animation led to extremely diverse animated black images in the late 1930s and early 1940s. With the decline of African-American film roles in the 1950s, however, animators fell back to minstrelsy-derived black images. Animated black characterization emerged as blackface changed in the first sound cartoons from a generic cartoon design to an image restricted to black characters. In the early 1930s, cartoon studios began to significantly differentiate black characters from animal characters. Studios focused upon developing characters with strong personalities in the mid-1930s, but black characterizations were mostly derivative of blackface minstrels and black actors. African-American artistic expressions influenced animation during World War II but did not affect the studios' black images. From 1946 to 1954, studios ignored African-American artistry and reverted to past styles of black imaging.

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Mater of Arts in Digital Arts: 3D Animation by Coursework and Research Report, 2017<br>During the colonial era, stereotypes of Africa were created and normalised in order to gain, maintain and justify colonial power. Europe during the colonial era, defined itself, using binary thinking (stemming from the Enlightenment period), against the "Other". This was used to establish a definition of the savage against which Europe was defined as civilised; Europe, deeming itself rational, used nineteenth-century African ways as an opposition by which the binary of rational against irrational could be expressed (Loomba 45). Colonial depictions of Africa often overlooked complexities and distinctions and represented the continent as a homogenous land and created oversimplified representations of the people and places (Harth 14). From the repeated production of imperial imagery, a regime of representation was created portraying Africa as a primitive wilderness, inferior to Europe, and as a site of colonial adventure. More recently, Triggerfish Animation Studios, based in Cape Town, created the films Adventures in Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013). This research argues that both films contain colonial stereotypes that conform to the regime of representation depicting Africa as a homogenous land of animals and landscapes, and repeat the colonial single story of an Edenic Africa. Khumba (2012), although still containing colonial stereotypes, offers a less stereotypical depiction than Adventures in Zambezia (2013).<br>XL2018

This dissertation focuses on the animated, charcoal, hand-drawn films of William Kentridge‟s Drawings for Projection series (1989—2003). At the beginning of this study, Kentridge‟s films are positioned as a dialectic of self and memory as embodied in a post-colonial South African setting. The series itself was selected as being representative of his artistic oeuvre. They are a closed-ended narrative, using a ground-breaking animation technique, created by the artist himself (Christov-Bakargiev 1998; Godby 1982). They were made by Kentridge during a specific South African cultural and historical period: beginning with Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris, made in 1989 at the height of apartheid; through to Tide Table, made in 2003 at the beginning of post post-apartheid South Africa. The hypothesis presented is that Kentridge‟s films have memory as their main theme. Memory itself takes different forms, and the discourse of memory deals with, for instance: memorialisation; repressed memories; traumatic memories; the unconscious and memories; and “postmemory”. How he depicts memories of his own and those of others is at the centre of this research. Using qualitative research methodology, with contextualisation (socio-historical and cultural) and comparative studies (apartheid and the Holocaust; different artistic representations of memory, for example Pascal Croci and William Kentridge; and Anselm Kiefer and William Kentridge) being part of the research design, this thesis has sought to substantiate this hypothesis. Further substantiation and clarification has been expounded by referencing seminal works in the field, such as those of Sigmund Freud (1899: “screen memories”; 1917: trauerarbeit); Roland Barthes (1981: the punctum / spacio-temporal continuum); Pierre Nora (1989: “lieux de mémoiré” / “sites of memory”); Henri Raczymow (1994: “memoire trouée” / “memory shot through with holes”); Richard Terdiman (1993: poesis); Marianne Hirsch (1997: “postmemory”); and Hayden White (1996: historical metafiction); among others. There have already been numerous references to how William Kentridge has depicted the ephemeral nature of memory / memories (Boris 2001; Cameron, Christov-Bakargiev and Coetzee, 1999; Christov-Bakargiev 1998; Sitas 2001). However an in-depth, hermeneutic, comparative analysis has not yet been undertaken. This study is therefore significant in that it explicates William Kentridge‟s works, making the following contributions: to the scholarship on Kentridge‟s work; to a South African perspective to the growing field of trauma studies; and to the apartheid and post-apartheid reflections on re-remembering and forgetting, memorialisation, forgiveness and guilt. Through socio-cultural and historical comparisons as well as artistic contrasts, the films themselves are acknowledged as an important source of reference of South African society. They are a documentation of life lived during apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa.<br>Department of Communication Science<br>D.Litt. et Phil.