Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I was very pleased with this book , but also somewhat disappointed. The way Allison delves into each subject is astounding, and her own personal experiences illustrate the culture so that an American can understand it. What disappointed me, however, was how Allison becomes bogged down in explaining everything in psychological jargon. I know as an anthropologist, she must address certain things, but I ended up just skimming the sections.
The first chapters of the book cover Japanese comics, or manga. It does not cover popular manga, but rather how certain running themes reflect on Japanese culture. She particuarly looks into "ero manga," which is erotic, adult comics. She makes some shocking insights, but nothing that isn't mirrored in the U.S. She also briefly looks into children's television shows and hostess clubs.
The second part deals with mothers in Japan. This section of the book was so thoroughly interesting it made me wish the entire book covered the topic. The amount of work that the women must do is incredible. She also looks into Japanese schools, especially nursery schools. Allison's own personal experiences and her interviews with Japanese women really flavor this section.
The third section wraps up with censorship in Japan. Allison delves more into politics here, and the section didn't grab me as much as the others. It is still interesting, and the information is well delivered.
If you can put aside her psychological ramblings and concentrate on the actual writings, this book is wonderfully informative. Recommended.
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This provocative study of gender and sexuality in contemporary Japan investigates elements of Japanese popular culture including erotic comic books, stories of mother-son incest, lunchboxesor obentosthat mothers ritualistically prepare for schoolchildren, and children's cartoons. Anne Allison brings recent feminist psychoanalytic and Marxist theory to bear on representations of sexuality, motherhood, and gender in these and other aspects of Japanese culture. Based on five years of fieldwork in a middle-class Tokyo neighborhood, this theoretically informed, accessible ethnographic study provides a provocative analysis of how sexuality, dominance, and desire are reproduced and enacted in late-capitalistic Japan.
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