From the Publisher
"Michele Leigh and Lora Mjolsness do not waste any time validating the need for their book, She Animates: Soviet Female Subjectivity in Russian Animation. ... This monumental research on female animation directors of the Soviet Union attempts to rectify [the] dismissive attitude toward women animators, explains the circumstances that allowed women to rise to leading creative positions in the Soviet animation industry, and provides examples to demonstrate the ways in which the female perspective is portrayed in Soviet animated films directed by women. … The authors diligently retrieved rare jewels of information through their intensive research and adeptly realized their objectives to preserve this important aspect of Russian animation history with a direct and engaging writing style. … Not to underestimate the power of animation art or the relevance of female subjectivity expressed by women artists, She Animates... is well worth the read."
— Eleanor Cowen, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, The Slavic Review (Spring 2022)
“The stop-motion children’s short Pro Buku (About Buka, 1984), by Nina Shorina, encapsulates the argument of Michele Leigh and Lora Mjolsness’s eye-opening book. In it, stubborn little Buka refuses to eat her kasha, get dressed properly, and comb her hair while the whole city looks on and waits for the tram driver who has stepped in to try to help... Ultimately a whole tram car full of cleaning products uncover the angelic Anya beneath the willful Buka, and Anya gets a star turn on stage to sing the lessons she has learned. So too, in She Animates, women animators broaden the horizons of the medium yet find themselves constrained by the historical, economic, and social conditions of their day… [Leigh and Mjolsness] argue that the medium of animation affords the directors with a unique form of expression that they in turn modify by their own contributions. Both form and content of the films shape the ways Soviet women came to think of themselves and their place in society, the family, and the world.”
—Anne Eakin Moss, University of Chicago, The Russian Review (October 2021)
“Who knew that animation would shine such a bright light on the ‘woman question’ and reveal so many artistically expressed answers by women themselves? The female workforce in Soviet and Russian animation represented themselves and their struggle to represent as nothing less than the future of the nation. How right they were. Delving into national discourses often expressed as binary world views, a century of women animators helped forge new cultural pathways between and through tradition and individuality, family and selfhood, authority and the authorial.”
—Maya Balakirsky Katz, Author of Drawing the Iron Curtain: Jews and the Golden Age of Soviet Animation
“She Animates offers an enlightening insight into the central role of women in Russian animation. The rich industrial, aesthetic, and social history it presents will be equally accessible to students and scholars working in animation, gender or Slavic studies. Encompassing films from the silent era to contemporary works, this book traces the cultural specificity of changing female aesthetics and subjectivity in Russian animation, while speaking to timely concerns beyond the immediate subject. It is a valuable and much needed addition to the scholarship on animation history.”
—Malcolm Cook, Associate Professor in Film Studies, University of Southampton; Author of Early British Animation: From Page and Stage to Cinema Screens
“Unlocking the remarkable contributions of women within our animated past is no easy feat. Due to unconscious biases, research challenges, prevailing myths, and sweeping assumptions, the ground-breaking work of women within this universal artform is generally overlooked and largely lost to time. She Animates: Soviet Female Subjectivity in Russian Animation brings to light twelve landmark directors who would have likely gone unrecognized. In this exploration of feminism, gender equality and the impact of women within Russian animation, Michele Leigh and Lora Mjolsness provide thoughtful analysis and critical approaches which help to challenge the outdated norms of our collective past.”
—Mindy Johnson, author of Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation
“In their book She Animates: Soviet Female Subjectivity in Russian Animation, Michele Leigh and Lora Mjolsness accomplish a superb job of refocusing the study of Soviet and Russian animation on women. They single out twelve female directors of animation across a hundred years of film history, which enables them to trace developments of individual animation directors across several decades without landing the reader in a jungle of names and titles. Instead, they provide an elegant and focused reading of the way in which women in animation have carved a niche for their views on such themes as motherhood, womanhood and femininity at different times and through different tales.
Leigh and Mjolsness provide a solid framework for their study of women in Soviet and post-Soviet animation by engaging with such terms such as ‘women’s cinema’ and ‘feminism’ in the historical, political and social context of different times and regimes. They succinctly demonstrate the divergence in the understanding of second wave of feminism in the late 1960s, when Soviet animators display difference rather than equality, and in this context they offer a refreshing analysis of the youth and dress culture in The Musicians of Bremen—often neglected as a ‘woman’s’ work.
This is an informed and thoroughly researched study which, through the focus on twelve careers, never overburdens the reader who can look forward to an enjoyable read.”
—Birgit Beumers, Professor Emerita in Film Studies, Aberystwyth University, Wales
“This impeccably researched historical account of women's involvement in Russian and Soviet animation encourages the reader to rethink the interaction between women's labour, animation, and ideology in the Russian and Soviet context. Leigh and Mjolsness explore the work of women animation directors from the 1920s to the present day and make the case that an evolving female subjectivity can be traced in their work, one that often questioned and pushed back against women’s perceived role in society. In doing so, She Animates actively resists the frequent pigeon-holing of animation as ‘just for children’ and offers a vibrant contribution to the ongoing discourses in animation studies, women's cinema, and Slavic film. Rich with detailed analyses of individual films and filmmakers that are read against the context of women’s position in Soviet and Russian society, this is an illuminating addition to the growing literature that reconsiders women's role in the history of animation.”
—Bella Honess Roe, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Surrey
“There is much to like in this little book, nicely produced by Academic Studies Press, with clear images and actual footnotes (worth mentioning in our era of increasing shortcuts in publishing). Leigh and Mjolness have convincingly demonstrated how little we know about the full range of Soviet female filmmakers and that Soviet animated films (and I’d add, films for children in general) offer a treasure trove of new material for a deeper understanding of Soviet society and how its values were inculcated—and sometimes subtly subverted—by women.”
—Denise J. Youngblood, University of Vermont, Women East/West
