A Study Of Wartime Animations Of Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren, the avant-garde animation master, joined the National Film Board of Canada in the Second World War. which turned to a new page or the avant-garde animation history. However, the research on avant-garde animation has long been marginalized by the research community. and has not been attached enough importance. Focusing on the animation work of McLaren during war years, this paper uses methods of documents research, case research, semiotic analysis and theory building to pursue and investigate his creative work, aesthetics pattern and art philosophy, which explores an important part of the entire path for avant-garde animation research.The concept of avant-garde animation can be clarified in four different contexts in the discourse of art history:the context of cultural history, art histories "as a sheer" and "as quality", criticism history. The "tridimensional landscape" of the research object is presented in this paper through microscopic research from all above.Introduction is based on a comprehensive survey of the study of Norman McLaren and his film. This part puts forward the major arguments, confirming the aim, briefly introducing the research mentality, its methodology, feature and innovation. With illustrating the important place of McLaren in the history of avant-garde animation as the link between past and future, the value of this dissertation to the study of McLaren and avant-garde animation is identified.Chapterâ… is on the basis of literature review, in the context of cultural history. It narrates the history of the National Film Board of Canada during the war, explores the contributions of the McLaren's wartime film work for Canada and its governmental film.Chapterâ…¡is based on the theoretic construction, in the context of art history. Centered on the relation between McLaren and European avant-garde film, this chapter traces the artistic experience of McLaren from his schooldays to "London-New York years" by the war. The differences between McLaren's vanguard and experimentalism have been presented in the context of criticism history.Chapterâ…¢uses methods of documents research to explore the creative works of McLaren during war years. And with case research, making Leopold Survage's theory on the "Le Rhythme colore" as framework, this chapter studies on the musicality, abstraction & objectivity and images of the works.Chapter IV is based on the materials research. In the crossing contexts of art history and cultural history, McLaren's time spirit by studying the relation between European vanguard and mainstream history is explored. The influence of the authoritative system, mainstream culture and the reality of the war on McLaren's animation as well as McLaren's rethink and vision on the war have been demonstrated.Chapter V clarifies the texture of history contexts of avant-garde animation with building the avant-garde theory to summarize the dissertation of the paper and indicates the important status and profound influence of the wartime works of McLaren in the history of avant-garde animation.