| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Although Shinseinen is generally regarded as a magazine for young men, girls and young women made a significant contribution to it as writers, readers, and protagonists. One of the key contributors to the popular representations of young women in Shinseinen is Hisao Juran (1902-1957). This paper focuses on two early comic novels Juran serialised in Shinseinen soon after his return from Europe. In Nonsharan dochuki [The Record of Nonchalant Travels] (1934), the 'nonchalant' girl heroine, Tanu ('racoon'), and her partner, Konkichi ('fox'), travel extensively in France, becoming involved in a series of slapstick nonsense and surrealistic events and accidents. In Fyugu doree [The Golden Fugue] (1935) the same pair are caught up in a search for secret funds by representatives of various international crime syndicates. Both texts employ comic pedantry that involves cross-cultural and multilingual knowledge and sophistication. Notably, in Juran's texts the comic elements tend to be assigned to women and girls. I will link this to Takahara Eiri's notion of the 'consciousness of the girl' and Tsurumi Shunsuke's interpretation of Ame no Uzume as a brave, subversive, and inclusive being. I will also cite Nakano Miyoko's parody of Juran as a tribute to the freedom espoused in his nonsense slapstick pedantry.
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