Manga and the Representation of Japanese History [Paperback]

This edited collection explores how graphic art and in particular Japanese manga represent Japanese history.

The articles explore the representation of history in manga from disciplines that include such diverse fields as literary studies, politics, history, cultural studies, linguistics, narratology, and semiotics. Despite this diversity of approaches all academics from these respective fields of study agree that manga pose a peculiarly contemporary appeal that transcends the limitation imposed by traditional approaches to the study and teaching of history. The representation of history via manga in Japan has a long and controversial historiographical dimension. Thereby manga and by extension graphic art in Japanese culture has become one of the worlds most powerful modes of expressing contemporary historical verisimilitude. The contributors to this volume elaborate how manga and by extension graphic art rewrites, reinvents and re-imagines the historicity and dialectic of bygone epochs in postwar and contemporary Japan.

Manga and the Representation of Japanese Historywill be of interest to students and scholars of Asian studies, Asian history, Japanese culture and society, as well as art and visual culture

Foreword by Professor John A. Lent  1. The Representation of Japanese History in Manga Roman Rosenbaum  2. Sabotaging the Rising Sun: Representing History in Tezuka Osamus Phoenix Rachael Hutchinson  3. Reading Showa History through Manga: Astro Boy as the avatar of postwar Japanese culture Roman Rosenbaum  4. Representations of Gendered Violence in Manga: The Case of Enforced Military Prostitution Erik Ropers  5.Maruo Suehiros Planet of the Jap: Revanchist Fantasy or War Critique? Rachel DiNitto and Peter Luebke  6. Making History Herstory: l“