Research Seminar - Silly, Sentimental, Sweet: Taking Japanese Girls' Stories Seriously

Silly, Sentimental, Sweet: Taking Japanese Girls' Stories Seriously

Presented by: Dr Lucy Fraser (School of Languages and Cultures)

Date: Wednesday 10 May 2023
Time: 12-1pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)

Abstract

In this session I will discuss some of the questions and challenges I face in studying texts from Japanese shōjo (girls’) culture, including literary novels, “light novels” for young adults, manga, and animated films and television series. Feminist scholars who have pioneered this research have understandably focused on the works that experiment with sexuality and gender norms, which make rich and fascinating targets of analysis. Less has been said about the more “girlish” and conventional works, which nevertheless have their own complexities, and are often consumed far more widely.

In justifying research into the “girly” texts, as academics we seem to feel compelled to show that they offer “agency” to girl characters and readers. But might our research be valuable in other ways? I have highlighted the way these texts and genres are formed around the pleasure they bring to their creators and audiences, but I’ve found pleasure difficult to articulate, and many established theories don’t seem to quite work for the texts I examine. Here I will discuss critical works on agency, pleasure, and the researcher’s subjectivity in girls’ studies that are helping me think through these challenges. 

Presenter

Lucy Fraser is Senior Lecturer in Japanese at The School of Languages and Cultures at UQ. Her research focusses on fairy tales, fantasy, and folklore in Japanese and English, with a particular interest in girl cultures and animal-human relationships. She is the author of The Pleasures of Metamorphosis: Japanese and English Fairy Tale Transformations of “The Little Mermaid” (Wayne State University Press, 2017). She has translated literary work by Tsushima Yūko and Kawakami Hiromi, and literary and cultural studies criticism by renowned Japanese scholars.