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Maser, Verena. "Beautiful and Innocent: Female same-sex intimacy in the japanese yuri genre." Dissertation Dr. Universität Trier, 2015. 
Added by: joachim (13/09/2015, 10:49)   Last edited by: joachim (04/09/2016, 15:00)
Resource type: Thesis/Dissertation
Language: en: English
ID no. (ISBN etc.): urn:nbn:de:hbz:385-9447
BibTeX citation key: Maser2015a
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Categories: General
Keywords: Empirical research, Fandom, Gender, Japan, Manga, Production, Sexuality
Creators: Maser
Publisher: Universität Trier (Trier)
Views: 3/650
Attachments   URLs   http://ubt.opus.hb ... olltexte/2015/944/
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between media content, its production, and its reception in Japanese popular culture with the example of the so-called yuri (“lily”) genre that centers on representations of intimate relationships between female characters. Based on contemporary genre theory, which posits that genres are not inherent properties of texts, the central question of this study is how the yuri genre is discursively produced in Japan. To examine this question, the study takes a variety of sources into consideration: Firstly, it discusses ten exemplary texts from the 1910s to 2010s that in the Japanese discourse on the yuri genre are deemed the milestone texts of the yuri genre’s historical development (Hana monogatari, Otome no minato, Secret Love, Shiroi heya no futari, Bishōjo senshi Sailor Moon, Maria-sama ga miteru, Shōjo Sect, Aoi hana, Yuru yuri, and Yuri danshi). Secondly, interviews with ten editors working for Japanese manga magazines shed light on their assessment of the yuri genre. Finally, the results of an online survey among Japanese fans of the yuri genre, which returned 1,352 completed questionnaires, question hitherto assumptions about the fans and their reasons for liking the yuri genre. The central argument of this study is that the yuri genre is for the most part constructed not through assignments on part of the genre’s producers but through interpretations on part of the genre’s fans. The intimacy portrayed in the texts ranges from “friendship” to “love,” and often the ideas of “innocence” and “beauty” are emphasized. Nevertheless, the formation of the yuri genre occurs outside the bounds of the texts, most importantly in fan works, i.e. derivative texts created by fans. The actual content of the originals merely serves as a starting point for these interpretations. Located at the intersection of Japanese studies, cultural studies, media studies, and sociology, this study contributes to our understanding of contemporary Japanese popular culture by showing the mutual dependencies between media content, production, and reception. It provides a deeper look at these processes through first-hand accounts of both producers and fans of the yuri genre.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables (iv)
Acknowledgments (v)
Note on Language (vii)

Introduction. A Lily Is a Lily Is … No Lily? (1)
1. The Yuri Genre as Site of a Discursive Struggle (9)

I. Content of the Yuri Genre (31)
2. “Sisterhood” before World War II: Hana monogatari and Otome no minato (32)
3. From Esu to Distress: Shīkuretto rabu and Shiroi heya no futari (49)
4. Fans’ Imagination Galore: Bishōjo senshi Sailor Moon (63)
5. The Monumental Text: Maria-sama ga miteru (76)
6. Developments in the Yuri Genre after 2003 (92)

II. Producing Yuri Manga (104)
7. The Yuri Manga Market in Japan (105)
8. Interviews with Japanese Manga Magazine Editors (113)

III. Reception of the Yuri Genre (132)
9. Characteristics of the Yuri Genre’s Fandom in Japan (133)
10. Online Survey among the Fans of the Yuri Genre in Japan (141)

Conclusion. Yuri at the Crossroads (159)
References (163)

 


  
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