SUBVERSIVE TRADEMARKS OF MANGA CULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF POPCULTURAL GLOBAL VILLAGE
Text topic: cultures of resistance
Text author: Ана Дошен
In spite of being initially produced for local audiences, Japanese comics
– manga – successfully transversed the national borders and increased
the economic and cultural significance of Japan. Manga influence has
been recognized within cool Japan domains of pop culture industry –
film, music, anime, video games, merchandising. Drawing on Stuart
Hall’s notion that popular culture is a space of constant tension and
struggle, I reinvestigate the subversive trademarks of this “juvenile”
Japanese medium, in terms of visual and narrative style, as well as its
mechanism to generate resistance to American mass culture hegemony.
Furthermore, the emphasis is on a controversial lolicon genre which
can be read as manga rebellion against conservatism in the realm of
fiction.