Description
Reframing Disability in Manga analyzes popular Japanese manga published from the 1990s to the present that portray the everyday lives of adults and children with disabilities in an ableist society. It focuses on five representative conditions currently classified as shogai (disabilities) in Japan - deafness, blindness, paraplegia, autism, and gender identity disorder - and explores the complexities and sociocultural issues surrounding each. Author Yoshiko Okuyama begins by looking at preindustrial understandings of difference in Japanese myths and legends before moving on to an overview of contemporary representations of disability in popular culture, uncovering sociohistorical attitudes toward the physically, neurologically, or intellectually marked Other. She critiques how characters with disabilities have been represented in mass media, which has reinforced ableism in society and negatively influenced our understanding of human diversity in the past.
Okuyama then presents fifteen case studies, each centered on a manga or manga series, that showcase how careful depictions of such characters as differently abled, rather than disabled or impaired, can influence cultural constructions of shogai and promote social change. Informed by numerous interviews with manga authors and disability activists, Okuyama reveals positive messages of diversity embedded in manga and argues that greater awareness of disability in Japan in the last two decades is due in part to the popularity of these works, the accessibility of the medium, and the authentic stories they tell.
Scholars and students in disability studies will find this book an invaluable resource as well as those with interests in Japanese cultural and media studies in general and manga and queer narrative and anti-normative discourse in Japan in particular.
About the Author
Yoshiko Okuyama is professor in the Department of Languages at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo.
Reviews
This important, groundbreaking work makes a strong case for manga as an effective medium for depicting the realities of living with a disability and educating the general public--not just manga fans--about it. My teaching would be enriched by the addition of manga that do a good job of representing disability, and this book gives me all the information I need to find and properly contextualize such works. Professor Okuyama's book would also be a wonderfully useful resource on queer narrative and anti-normative discourse in Japan. With a focus on manga that promote greater understanding and awareness of disability and its sociocultural dimensions in Japan, Reframing Disability in Manga shows how this popular culture medium can serve as a powerful agent of social change. Theoretically astute and informed by Yoshiko Okuyama's many interviews with activists, authors, and editors, this book is a fascinating study of representations of disability in Japanese graphic novels and a significant contribution to disability studies scholarship.
Book Information
ISBN 9780824882365
Author Yoshiko Okuyama
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint University of Hawai'i Press
Publisher University of Hawai'i Press
Weight(grams) 489g
Okuyama then presents fifteen case studies, each centered on a manga or manga series, that showcase how careful depictions of such characters as differently abled, rather than disabled or impaired, can influence cultural constructions of shogai and promote social change. Informed by numerous interviews with manga authors and disability activists, Okuyama reveals positive messages of diversity embedded in manga and argues that greater awareness of disability in Japan in the last two decades is due in part to the popularity of these works, the accessibility of the medium, and the authentic stories they tell.
Scholars and students in disability studies will find this book an invaluable resource as well as those with interests in Japanese cultural and media studies in general and manga and queer narrative and anti-normative discourse in Japan in particular.
About the Author
Yoshiko Okuyama is professor in the Department of Languages at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo.
Reviews
This important, groundbreaking work makes a strong case for manga as an effective medium for depicting the realities of living with a disability and educating the general public--not just manga fans--about it. My teaching would be enriched by the addition of manga that do a good job of representing disability, and this book gives me all the information I need to find and properly contextualize such works. Professor Okuyama's book would also be a wonderfully useful resource on queer narrative and anti-normative discourse in Japan. With a focus on manga that promote greater understanding and awareness of disability and its sociocultural dimensions in Japan, Reframing Disability in Manga shows how this popular culture medium can serve as a powerful agent of social change. Theoretically astute and informed by Yoshiko Okuyama's many interviews with activists, authors, and editors, this book is a fascinating study of representations of disability in Japanese graphic novels and a significant contribution to disability studies scholarship.
Book Information
ISBN 9780824882365
Author Yoshiko Okuyama
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint University of Hawai'i Press
Publisher University of Hawai'i Press
Weight(grams) 489g
