Identifying Loss, Animating Melancholy: Asian-American Narratives in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Spirited Away, and Bao

Abstract

Animated film provides a complex illustration of the creativity behind constructing narratives. This thesis aims to explore the way that racial and cultural identity are displayed within animated film. The purpose of this thesis will be paying close attention to the intersections of psychoanalytic theories of loss that are placed on a spectrum with terms such as trauma, mourning and melancholia all within the scope of racial identification. These terms will be worked through from texts from Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan as well as works that expand on these notions. These psychoanalytic texts will be applied to Nickelodeon's “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, and Domee Shi’s “Bao” produced by Disney and Pixar studios. These works of animation seem to have helped bring animation into the spotlight in the US. These films could be seen as primarily enforcing westernized, often eurocentric, ideology, so the rise of Asian American animation sheds new light on how stories are being told and through which lenses. I specifically explore the Asian-American immigrant narrative throughout this thesis and the effects of these narratives with the audience.