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| 1 |
ID:
112851
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper examines the recent hit shojo manga by Yoshinaga Fumi, Ooku: The Inner Chambers, which creates a science fiction alternate version of Edo-period Japan ruled by a female shogun. This gender-reversed world is the outcome of the sudden outbreak of an epidemic that kills only male youths in the era of the third shogun Iemitsu. In the inner chambers of Edo Castle, which are the private space of the shogun, 3,000 beautiful men live and work. This alternative world rereads existing historical narratives and also provides a critical space for readers to examine the multiple discourses of gender and sexuality. The paper approaches this re-representation of Japanese premodern history in the genre of shojo manga from several angles. To provide a fuller understanding of Ooku, it shows how revisionist presentation of the Tokugawa inner chambers in a 1960s Yoshiya Nobuko novel provided a model for a subgenre of historical period drama in post-war popular culture. It also examines shojo manga traditions of non-normative gender identities.
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| 2 |
ID:
117500
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
What keeps learners of Japanese going in formal study? In Australia, few continue to an advanced level of the language, despite large numbers of learners. This study found that compared to discontinuers, continuers showed much higher levels of motivation and integrative orientation, and their attitudes towards learning were much more positive. They showed greater autonomous learning, and engaged in more self-initiated activities outside the classroom. In interviews, advanced learners explained the paths that enabled them to continue, yet indicated that university policies affect continuation through timetable and study program restrictions. The predominant reason to continue was the hope to travel to Japan, but an interest in Japanese culture and in Japanese popular culture (J-pop) products (e.g., anime, manga) also was prominent. The enjoyment of J-pop was implicated at least partially in both retention and attrition in Japanese. It provides the motivation to learn Japanese, and in a cyclical fashion, the learning of Japanese itself is consumed so as to further consume J-pop. It may also be the case that once appetites for language consumption are satisfied, some learners could abandon formal study of Japanese at a relatively early stage.
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