Since the 2000s, the Japanese word shjo has gained global currency, accompanying the transcultural spread of other popular Japanese media such as manga and anime. The term refers to both a character type specifically, as well as commercial genres marketed to female audiences more generally. Through its diverse chapters this edited collection introduces the two main currents of shjo research: on the one hand, historical investigations of Japan's modern girl culture and its representations, informed by Japanese-studies and gender-studies concerns; on the other hand, explorations of the transcultural performativity of shjo as a crafted concept and affect-prone code, shaped by media studies, genre theory, and fan-culture research.

While acknowledging that shjo has mediated multiple discourses throughout the twentieth centurydiscourses on Japan and its modernity, consumption and consumerism, non-hegemonic gender, and also technologythis volume shifts the focus to shjo mediations, stretching from media by and for actual girls, to shjo as media. As a result, the Japan-derived concept, while still situated, begins to offer possibilities for broader conceptualizations of girlness within the contemporary global digital mediascape.

Revisits shojo/shojo-ness in its fundamentally mediatic constitution Illuminates the recent conceptual shift of shojo from social representation to code and performative practice Presents cross-media investigations focused on gendered genres, character types and characterizations as well as fan-cultural mediations Edited by Japan-based pioneers of manga studies and shojo research

Autorentext

Jaqueline Berndt is Professor of Japanese Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. She has been involved in the formation of academic Manga Studies in Japan since the early 2000s. Her research interest in manga has been shaped primarily by Art, Media, and Exhibition Studies.

Kazumi Nagaike is Professor of Japanese Culture at Oita University, Japan. She is widely known for her English-language publications on Japan-derived male-male erotic narratives created by and for women, particularly boys' love manga and literary cross-dressing fantasies.

Fusami Ogi is Professor of English at Chikushi Jogakuen University, Japan. She has made her mark beyond Japan, with publications covering the pioneering women artists who have been remembered in manga history as the Magnificent 49ers. For many years, she headed the publicly funded Women's MANGA Research Project, which gave rise to this volume.

Klappentext
Since the 2000s, the Japanese word sh jo has gained global currency, accompanying the transcultural spread of other popular Japanese media such as manga and anime. The term refers to both a character type specifically, as well as commercial genres marketed to female audiences more generally. Through its diverse chapters this edited collection introduces the two main currents of sh jo research: on the one hand, historical investigations of Japan s modern girl culture and its representations, informed by Japanese-studies and gender-studies concerns; on the other hand, explorations of the transcultural performativity of sh jo as a crafted concept and affect-prone code, shaped by media studies, genre theory, and fan-culture research. While acknowledging that sh jo has mediated multiple discourses throughout the twentieth century discourses on Japan and its modernity, consumption and consumerism, non-hegemonic gender, and also technology this volume shifts the focus to sh jo mediations, stretching from media by and for actual girls, to sh jo as media. As a result, the Japan-derived concept, while still situated, begins to offer possibilities for broader conceptualizations of girlness within the contemporary global digital mediascape.

Inhalt

Part I: Shjo Manga.- 1. Romance of the Taish School Girl in Shjo Manga: Here Comes Miss Modern (Alisa Freedman).- 2. Redefining Shjo and Shnen Manga through Language Patterns (Giancarla Unser-Schutz).- 3. Shjo Manga Beyond Shjo Manga: The Female Mode of Address in Kabukumon (Olga Antononoka).- Part II: Shjo beyond Manga.- 4. Practicing Shjo in Japanese New Media and Cyberculture: **** Analyses of the Cell Phone Novel and Dream Novel (Kazumi Nagaike and Raymond Langley).- 5. The Shjo in the Rjo: Enchi Fumiko's Representation of the Rjo Who Refused to Grow Old (Sohyun Chun).- 6. Mediating Otome in the Discourse of War Memory: Complexity of Memory-Making through Postwar Japanese War Films (Kaori Yoshida).- 7. Shjo in Anime: Beyond the Object of Men's Desire(Akiko Sugawa-Shimada).- Part III: Shjo Performances.- 8. A Dream Dress for Girls: Milk, Fashion and Shjo Identity (Masafumi Monden).- 9. Sakura ga meijiru Unlocking the Shjo Wardrobe: Cosplay, Manga, 2.5D Space(Emerald L. King).- 10. Multilayered Performers: The Takarazuka Musical Revue as Media (Sonoko Azuma, Translated by Raymond Langley and Nick Hall).- 11. Sounds and Sighs: Voice Porn for Women (Minori Ishida, Translated by Nick Hall).- Part IV: Shjo Fans.- 12. From Shjo to Bangya(ru) : Women and Visual Kei (Adrienne Johnson).- 13. Shjo Fantasies of Inhabiting Cool Japan: Reimagining Fukuoka Through Shjo and Otome Ideals with Cosplay Tourism(Craig Norris).- 14. Seeking an Alternative: Male Shjo Fans since the 1970s (Patrick W. Galbraith).