Girl Reading Girl in Japan

<p><em>Girl Reading Girl</em> provides the first overview of the cultural significance of girls and reading in modern and contemporary Japan with emphasis on the processes involved when girls read about other girls. </p><p>The collection examines the reading practices of real life girls from differing social backgrounds throughout the twentieth century while a number of chapters also consider how fictional girls read attention is given to the diverse cultural representations of the girl, or <em>shôjo</em>, who are the objects of the reading desires of Japan’s real life and fictional girls. These representations appear in various genres, including prose fiction, such as Yoshiya Nobuko’s <em>Flower Stories</em> and Takemoto Nobara’s <em>Kamikaze Girls</em>, and manga, such as Yoshida Akimi’s <em>The Cherry Orchard.</em> This volume presents the work of pioneering women scholars in the field of girl studies including translations of a ground-breaking essay by Honda Masuko on reading girls and Kawasaki Kenko’s response to prejudicial masculine critiques of best-selling novelist, Yoshimoto Banana. Other topics range from the reception of <em>Anne of Green Gables </em>in Japan to girls who write and read male homoerotic narratives.</p> <p>Introduction <em>Tomoko Aoyama and Barbara Hartley </em><strong>Part 1: Genealogy of the Reading Girl</strong> 1. The Genealogy of <em>Hirahira</em>: Liminality and the Girl <em>Honda Masuko </em>2. The Genealogy of the "Girl" Critic Reading Girl <em>Tomoko Aoyama </em>3. The Climate of the Girl in Yoshimoto Banana <em>Kawasaki Kenko </em><strong>Part 2: Reading against Social Constraint</strong> 4. Volatility and Diversity: Shiraki Shizu and the Reading Girl <em>Barbara Hartley </em>5. Ribbons Undone: The <em>Shôjo</em> Story Debates in Prewar Japan <em>Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase </em>6. Japanese Girls’ Comfort Reading of <em>Anne of Green Gables, Akiko Uchiyama </em><strong>Part 3: The Erotic Reading Girl</strong> 7. Matsuura Rieko’s <em>The Reverse Version</em>: The Theme of "Girl-Addressing-Girl" and Male Homosexual Fantasies <em>Kazumi Nagaike </em>8. Murakami Haruki’s <em>Shôjo</em>: Kasahara Mei <em>Maria Flutsch </em>9. A Girl with Her Writing Machine <em>Rio Otomo</em> <strong>Part 4: Reading the Performing and Visual Girl</strong> 10. Transcending Gender in Pictorial Representations of Miyazawa Kenji’s "Marivuron and the Girl" (<em>Marivuron to Shôjo</em>) <em>Helen Kilpatrick </em>11. From <em>The Cherry Orchard </em>to <em>Sakura no sono</em>: Translation and the Transfiguration of Gender and Sexuality in <em>Shôjo Manga, James Welker </em>12. Girls Reading Harry Potter, Girls Writing Desire: Amateur Manga and<em> Shôjo</em> Reading Practices <em>Sharalyn Orbaugh </em>13. Reading Lolita in Japan <em>Vera Mackie</em></p>