Transfiguring Women In Late Twentieth Century Japan

Author : James Welker
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (776 download)

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Download or read book Transfiguring the Female: Women and Girls Engaging the Transnational in Late Twentieth Century Japan written by James Welker and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines three spheres of women and adolescent girls who overtly challenged gender and sexual norms in late twentieth century Japan: the women involved in the uman ribu [women0́9s liberation] movement and the rezubian [lesbian] community, as well as young women artists and girl readers of what I call queer shojo manga [girls0́9 comics]. The individuals in these three spheres found the normative understanding of 0́−women0́+ untenable and worked to destabilize it in part through 0́−transfiguring0́+ elements appropriated from a loosely defined West. Based on both archival research and interviews, this dissertation specifically focuses on uses, effects, and experiences of transfiguration both within and beyond these spheres. The primary chronologic focus of this study is the 1970s and 1980s, when these three spheres emerged, then variously flourished, faltered, fragmented, and took on new forms. At times, I do, however, trace threads both backward to the beginning of the twentieth century0́4to point to deeper transnational roots than may be immediately apparent0́4and forward to the beginning of the twenty-first century0́4to show some of the effects of the cultural work of these women and girls. The introduction situates this project within existing scholarship and introduces 0́−transfiguration,0́+ the central concept I use to frame this study. Chapter two, 0́−Trajectories,0́+ provides histories of the three spheres at the heart of this work. Chapter three, 0́−Terminology,0́+ draws on archives stretching back to the beginning of the twentieth century to trace the transnational etymologies of three terms used within and about these spheres: 0́−uman ribu0́+ [women0́9s lib], 0́−rezubian0́+ [lesbian], and 0́−shonen ai0́+ [boys0́9 love]. Chapter four, 0́−Translation,0́+ examines direct translations and other transfigurations of early radical feminist writing from the US, the landmark texts Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971) and The Hite Report (1976), as well as twentieth century literature with an eye toward acts and impacts of translation. Chapter five, 0́−Travel0́+ considers the effects of real and vicarious voyages both on these spheres and on the individuals within them. Finally, the conclusion offers reflections on how engagements with the transnational shaped the ribu, rezubian, and queer shojo manga spheres, the women and adolescent girls within them, and, ultimately, the meaning of 0́−women0́+ in Japan. This dissertation shows that, while some women turned to what they perceived as an advanced West for solutions to or an escape from local issues, most were firmly focused on the local0́4even as they selectively adapted, even celebrated, Western practices. For the majority of even the most radical women, the Western turn was not a turn away from Japan. Rather, it was integral to being a modern woman within Japan. More significantly, among women and girls in the uman ribu movement, the rezubian community, and the queer shojo manga sphere0́4and, ultimately, beyond it0́4the act of transfiguring Western cultural practices into something locally meaningful, as well as the products thereof, resulted not just in change at the individual and community level, but the transfiguration of the category 0́−women0́+ in Japan. This more expansive notion of the female accommodated not merely a significantly increased number of public roles not bound to being a mother or a wife but a greater diversity of gender and sexual expression.