午夜剧场

From the perspective of an American literature researcher, this book attempts to trace how "America" has been represented in Japanese girls' culture, using the translation of American literature since the Meiji era and post-WWII democratization policies as clues.

The inspiration for this book was the "Candy Candy Lawsuit" that began in 1997. This was a legal battle over the rights to the work between Keiko Nagita, the original author of the 1970s mega-hit shojo manga "Candy Candy," and the manga artist Yumiko Igarashi. Having spent my girlhood with this work, I followed the progress of the trial with considerable interest. While reading the views of both Nagita and Igarashi on their respective websites regarding the creation of the work, I noticed something.

"Candy Candy" is set in early 20th-century America and tells the story of an orphan named Candy who overcomes hardships with her natural brightness and grows up to be a nurse. In creating this work, it became clear that both Nagita and Igarashi used foreign children's literature, such as "Anne of Green Gables," as models. Indeed, upon reflection, the work was peppered with motifs reminiscent of "Anne of Green Gables," "The Secret Garden," and "Daddy-Long-Legs."

At that moment, a thought occurred to me. Perhaps my introduction to the United States and my starting point for reading the literary works mentioned above was actually shojo manga. In other words, the origin of my current research in American literature may have lain in shojo manga set in foreign countries.

Since the Meiji era, works such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Little Women," and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" were introduced to Japan one after another. These representations of "foreign lands" were accepted by girls through girls' magazines like "Shojo no Tomo," and this was passed down to post-war shojo manga magazines.

How has the genre of shojo manga expressed "America"? Shojo manga, which is often positioned lower in the cultural hierarchy, was precisely the entrance to "somewhere other than here" for many readers. This was supported by the history of cultural reception and translation in Japan.

Hisayo Ogushi

Shohakusha

268 pages, 2,750 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.