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This collection brings together fifteen chapters written by scholars specializing in disciplines ranging from anthropology and sociology to literature, film, and performance studies. These scholars analyze complex questions about how the body is lived and imagined as a locus of meaning-making in contemporary Japan. Exploring such topics as mind-body dualism, aging and illness, spirit possession, beauty, performance, and gender, this collection addresses the wide array of socio-cultural and literary contexts in which the body is interpreted in Japanese culture and thought.
List of contents
Part I: The Performed Body
Chapter One: A Japanese Fox in a Woman's Body: Shifting Performances of Femininity in Kij Johnson's Reworking of Konjaku Monogatari
Luciana Cardi
Chapter Two: Call Me a Dog. Feeling (Inugami) Possession in Contemporary Tokushima Prefecture
Andrea De Antoni
Chapter Three: Kabuki: Performance of Gendered Bodies
Galia Todorova Gabrovska
Chapter Four: Home Is Where Mother Is, and the Way to a Man's Heart Goes through His Stomach: Bodies in the Kitchen (Yoshimoto Banana)
Irina Holca
Chapter Five: The Body as Canvas: Osaka Drag Queens from Kabuki to Lady Gaga
Carmen S¿punaru T¿mä
Part II: The De-formed Body
Chapter Six: The Body in Motion in But¿: Passivity and Transformation in the Flesh
Caitlin Coker
Chapter Seven: Senility and the Body: Care and Gender in Contemporary Japanese Literature
Shun Izutani
Chapter Eight: The Cared for Dog and the Caring Dog: Ethical Possibilities in Rieko Matsuura's Kenshin
Kayo Takeuchi
Chapter Nine: Pricking Pain Surrounds Us: Restraining, Shaping, and Taming the Body in Hebi ni Piasu
Emerald L. King
Chapter Ten: Literature as Social Activism and Reconciliation: Survivors' Writing and the Meaning of Hansen's Disease in Japan after 1950
Kathryn Tanaka
Chapter Eleven: The Bald and the Beautiful: Perspectives on Baldness in Contemporary Japan
Adrian O. T¿mä
Part III: The Conformed Body
Chapter Twelve: The Asian Body in the North American Context: Visual and Literary Racialization
Alina E. Anton
Chapter Thirteen: Bodies in the Dark: The Postwar Cinema Audience and the Body as 'Ground Zero'
Jennifer Coates
Chapter Fourteen: The Confined Body in Ogawa Y¿ko's The Ring Finger: A Beguiling Journey towards "Self-discovery"
Kayo Sasao
Chapter Fifteen: Bodies of Onna-no-ko: The Case of a Sex Establishment in Tokyo, Japan
Yoko Kumada
About the author
Edited by Irina Holca and Carmen Sapunaru Tamas - Contributions by Alina E. Anton; Luciana Cardi; Jennifer Coates; Caitlin Coker; Andrea De Antoni; Galia Todorova Gabrovska; Shun Izutani; Emerald L. King; Yoko Kumada; Kayo Sasao; Kayo Takeuchi; Adrian O.
Summary
Using analytical tools from a wide spectrum of disciplines, this edited collection analyzes the role of the body in contemporary Japanese society, literature, and culture. The contributors explore the body as a site of transformation, growth, ritual, decay, and personal identity.
