Resources: Further Reading
Feb. 23rd, 2002 03:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootThis page has a partial bibliography of the things I read just starting off, to get a feel for the background and culture of the anime I was watching.
The Japanese Experience, by W. G. Beasley. This is a reasonably compact history of Japan, written for the lay-person.
Contemporary Japan, by Duncan McCargo. This one covers late 20th century politics and general culture.
"Bushido or Bull? A Midieval Historian's Perspective on the Imperial Army and the Japanese Warrior Tradition," by Karl F. Friday; in the journal The History Teacher, v27.3. This was pure serendipity; I found it right behind a different article for a whole different project. But it's hugely entertaining. Talks about what the code of bushido really looked like in practice, in it's first romantic reconstruction in the 17th-18th c, and what it looked like in it's second reconstruction in late 19th early 20th c. The author takes my favorite historical approach: the Sardonic school.
Modern Japanese Thought, edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. An anthology dealing with changes in socio-political thought in Japan; time-frame seems to be post-Perry (the fact that this defines modernism should give you a hint about the anthology as a whole). Very interesting, but it seems to take it for granted that ideas like individualism and personal rights simply didn't exist in Japan until imported from the West; personally, I don't quite buy this. But it does have a lot of good, solid information under the ideological cellophane.
The Electric Geisha, edited by Atsushi Ueda. This anthology covers a lot of pop culture phenomena, including, as indicated by the title, the karaoke machine.
Japan Pop!: Inside the Wold of Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Timothy J. Craig. Another anthology. This one came out of the Conference on Japanese Popular Culture held at the University of Victoria, Canada, in 1997. It has a lot on music and TV programming.
Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, edited by John Whittier Treat. A lot of this one is pretty academic, but the last four essays deal with media and there's some good stuff on music. The one by Treat himself, on the position of shoujo in Japanese culture, is absolutely fascinating.
Language and Popular Culture in Japan, by Brian Moeran. Contrary to how the title sounds, this a a wonderful book. Anyone who wants to know about how the in/out and public/private divisions work absolutely must read the first chapter. It's easy to understand and written in a delightfully dry humor. My favorite, so far.
The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, by Susan J. Napier. Interesting book. It focuses mostly on the issues/presentation of women.
The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan, by Kawai Hayao, English translation ed. by Gary Snyder. This is a Jungian analysis of Japanese folk tales. I don't entirely agree with Jungian theory, but Kawai certainly does first class pattern analysis. The basic idea of this book is that the Japanese psyche is feminine. I think he's partially right, under the definitions used here. A thought provoking book, not for light reading.
Recommended Books on Anime and Manga. This is Gilles Poitras' page of recommendations. Poitras is a librarian, and thus deeply invested in the dissemination of good information. His newsletter, containing info on releases in this country, appears in the General(ist) Links page.
History/Politics
The Japanese Experience, by W. G. Beasley. This is a reasonably compact history of Japan, written for the lay-person.
Contemporary Japan, by Duncan McCargo. This one covers late 20th century politics and general culture.
"Bushido or Bull? A Midieval Historian's Perspective on the Imperial Army and the Japanese Warrior Tradition," by Karl F. Friday; in the journal The History Teacher, v27.3. This was pure serendipity; I found it right behind a different article for a whole different project. But it's hugely entertaining. Talks about what the code of bushido really looked like in practice, in it's first romantic reconstruction in the 17th-18th c, and what it looked like in it's second reconstruction in late 19th early 20th c. The author takes my favorite historical approach: the Sardonic school.
.
General Culture
Modern Japanese Thought, edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. An anthology dealing with changes in socio-political thought in Japan; time-frame seems to be post-Perry (the fact that this defines modernism should give you a hint about the anthology as a whole). Very interesting, but it seems to take it for granted that ideas like individualism and personal rights simply didn't exist in Japan until imported from the West; personally, I don't quite buy this. But it does have a lot of good, solid information under the ideological cellophane.
.
Popular Culture
The Electric Geisha, edited by Atsushi Ueda. This anthology covers a lot of pop culture phenomena, including, as indicated by the title, the karaoke machine.
Japan Pop!: Inside the Wold of Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Timothy J. Craig. Another anthology. This one came out of the Conference on Japanese Popular Culture held at the University of Victoria, Canada, in 1997. It has a lot on music and TV programming.
Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, edited by John Whittier Treat. A lot of this one is pretty academic, but the last four essays deal with media and there's some good stuff on music. The one by Treat himself, on the position of shoujo in Japanese culture, is absolutely fascinating.
Language and Popular Culture in Japan, by Brian Moeran. Contrary to how the title sounds, this a a wonderful book. Anyone who wants to know about how the in/out and public/private divisions work absolutely must read the first chapter. It's easy to understand and written in a delightfully dry humor. My favorite, so far.
.
Literature
The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, by Susan J. Napier. Interesting book. It focuses mostly on the issues/presentation of women.
The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan, by Kawai Hayao, English translation ed. by Gary Snyder. This is a Jungian analysis of Japanese folk tales. I don't entirely agree with Jungian theory, but Kawai certainly does first class pattern analysis. The basic idea of this book is that the Japanese psyche is feminine. I think he's partially right, under the definitions used here. A thought provoking book, not for light reading.
.
Other People's Bibliographies
Recommended Books on Anime and Manga. This is Gilles Poitras' page of recommendations. Poitras is a librarian, and thus deeply invested in the dissemination of good information. His newsletter, containing info on releases in this country, appears in the General(ist) Links page.
