Manga and the Representation of Japanese History

<p>This edited collection explores how graphic art and in particular Japanese manga represent Japanese history.</p><p>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 world’s 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. </p><p><em>Manga and the Representation of Japanese History</em> will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian studies, Asian history, Japanese culture and society, as well as art and visual culture</p> <p>Foreword 1. The Representation of Japanese History in Manga<em> </em>2. Sabotaging the Rising Sun: Representing History in Tezuka Osamu’s Phoenix 3. Reading Showa History through Manga: Astro Boy as the avatar of postwar Japanese culture 4. Representations of Gendered Violence in Manga: The Case of Enforced Military Prostitution <em> </em>5.Maruo Suehiro’s ‘Planet of the Jap’: Revanchist Fantasy or War Critique? 6. Making History Herstory: Nelson’s Son and Siebold’s Daughter in Japanese Shōjo Manga 7. Heroes and Villains: Manchukuo in Yasuhiko Yoshikazu’s "Rainbow Trotsky" 8. Making History – Manga Between Kyara and Historiography 9. Postmodern Representations of the Pre-modern Edo Period 10. ‘LAND OF KAMI, LAND OF THE DEAD:’ Paligenesis and the Aesthetics of Religious Revisionism in Kobayashi Yoshinori’s ‘Neo-Gômanist Manifesto: On Yasukuni' 11. Hating Korea, Hating the Media – Manga Kenkanryû and the Graphical (Mis-) Representation of Japanese History in the Internet Age<em> </em>12. Towards a Summation: How do manga represent history? </p>