A talk by Deborah Shamoon, University of Notre Dame
Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore SW7 2EU
Humanities Seminar Room
Wednesday 2 June 2010 4 PM
Shōjo manga, or romance comics for teenage girls, is an extremely popular and prominent genre of comics in Japan. This genre is characterized by a very dense visual style, including flowery backgrounds and big-eyed, androgynous boys and girls. Why is this genre so appealing to girls? Where did it come from? And why do so many of the stories feature androgynous characters or even homosexual romance?
This talk will give an overview of the history of shōjo manga, from its origins in 1920s and 30s girls' magazines, to the "revolution" of women writers in the 1970s. The main focus will be on the development of shōjo manga’s distinctive visual style, using as a primary example Ikeda Riyoko's 1972 hit The Rose of Versailles, which has been called the "shining masterpiece of shōjo manga."
It is, however, very bizarre how Japanese girls are obsessed with androgynous looking boys. Quite curious to know why. Another bizarre thing is, the so-called "BL = Boys Love" mangas are massively popular among young girls in Japan. Somehow those mangas about young "beautifully drawn" gay boys love stories fascinate them. I personally think of it as pretty creepy hobby but oh well.
ReplyDeleteMaybe because Japan is rather closeted and conservative country, all of those underground sub-culture went extreme, I'm not sure.
This seems interesting. Thank you for posting this, Adrian.