Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Kaplan, E. Ann | Santa Ana, Jeffrey | Ching, Leo T.S. | Gabbard, Krin | Gerow, Aaron | .
Date
2016-12-01
Keywords
Asian studies -- Comparative literature -- Social research | jun’ai (pure-love), kokusaika (Japan’s internationalization), national identity, popular media, soshitsukan (sense of loss), transnational imagination | jun’ai (pure-love), kokusaika (Japan’s internationalization), national identity, popular media, soshitsukan (sense of loss), transnational imagination
Department
Department of Comparative Literature
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77217
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the jun’ai (pure-love) genre has flourished in Japan, both in works of popular literature and in film. This phenomenon coincides with a time when the country is seen by the media as being characterized by soshitsukan (sense of loss). In jun’ai films, the heroine is often the object of loss. This theme of loss in jun’ai therefore resonates with the Japanese social context, but this connection has not yet been fully elucidated. In this dissertation, I seek to explain why Japanese women, who are arguably treated as “other†within Japan, embody a transnationalism that is often controlled and restrained for the sake of maintaining a cohesive Japanese national identification. I examine a group of 21st-century Japanese and Taiwanese films that feature a jun’ai sentiment between the heroine and the male protagonist, arguing that the jun’ai sentiment shows a gap between the transnational imagination that individuals aspire to, and a national ideology that manages to bind subjects to the status quo. Jun’ai, as a subgenre of romance, is used as a national allegory for such purpose. To explain how the roles of jun’ai heroines are used to recuperate national identification, I also analyze the concurrent trend of transnational adaptations of Audrey Hepburn’s child-woman persona in television dramas and OL (office lady) fashion magazines, which have popularized a local version of “otona-kawaii†(adult-cute) women in Japan. In these media representations, women’s “foreignness†is controlled through the expression of pure-love and the image of women as “evolving†subjects who are capable of adapting to circumstances and mature through the process. Finally, in order to further explore the transnational potential of the genre, I examine the ways in which jun’ai is used as a national discourse in Taiwan. | 231 pages
Recommended Citation
Sung, I-Te Rita, "Mediating Trans/nationalism: Japanese ‘Jun’ai’ (Pure-Love) in Popular Media Representations | Mediating Trans/nationalism: Japanese ‘Jun’ai’ (Pure-Love) in Popular Media Representations" (2016). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3046.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3046