Leiden University Student Repository

Kwakkelstein, Natascha (2023)

A Story of Perfection is a Boring One: How disability is implicitly viewed and represented in Avatar: the Last Airbender

Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)

Even though disabled characters in TV and film are more pervasive than the average consumer would think, many characters with disabilities are still depicted in a rather negative light. David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder have termed this "narrative prosthesis" to signify that disabled characters or often solely used as plot devices. I have decided to analyse the portrayal of Avatar: the Last Airbenders´ disabled characters to see whether they too are only used to further the narrative. Next to contextualising the series alongside the depiction of other characters in other enterntainment media and discussing several of the series' characters individually I put special emphasis on the character Toph as I claim that animation can aid in a positive representation of disabled characters.

Disability Studies

Avatar the Last Airbender

Narrative Prosthesis

supercrip

animation

Author

Kwakkelstein, Natascha

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Film

Supervisors

Horsman, Y.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en