Motifs, textures and folds: Japanese popular visual culture as transcultural and phenomenological flow Valérie Cools A Thesis In the Department of Humanities Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 2014 © Valérie Cools, 2014 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Valérie Cools Entitled: Motifs, textures and folds: Japanese popular visual culture as transcultural and phenomenological flow and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Jason Camlot Dr. Ian Condry External Examiner Dr. Marc Steinberg External to Program Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim Examiner Dr. Bart Simon Examiner Dr. Ollivier Dyens Thesis Supervisor Approved by Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director Dean of Faculty ABSTRACT Motifs, textures and folds: Japanese popular visual culture as transcultural and phenomenological flow Valérie Cools, PhD Concordia University, 2014 Since the 1980s, Japanese popular visual culture has known great popularity in Western Europe and North America, most strikingly in the form of manga, anime and Japanese video games. However, one is struck by how fragmented this cultural flow is: not only is it composed of three different media, but it also contains works that are wildly different from one another. Can something be said to connect these works together, other than their Japanese provenance? This dissertation proposes two avenues for answering this question and establishing a certain cohesiveness within the fabric of Japanese popular visual culture as it has been exported: on the one hand, this thesis explores recurrent content and themes (motifs) within a purposefully varied corpus of manga, anime and games; on the other, it establishes phenomenological consistencies (textures and folds) across the corpus, demonstrating that these works provide medium-based experiences that are similar in significant respects. Parallel to this demonstration, this dissertation examines the effects of this cohesion on the Western reception of these works. The author argues that, while cultural motifs evoking “Japaneseness” play an initial part in gathering these works into a perceived flow, it is their common phenomenology that cements their perceived cohesion and facilitates their integration into non-Japanese imaginaries. By analysing the transcultural travels of Japanese popular visual culture, this thesis examines a case where differentiated imaginaries meet and merge, and thereby develops a theory of the imaginary as phenomenological and processual space, as a fabric that surrounds us and which we collectively and continually weave and unravel. Ultimately, the author determines that this particular imaginary is regulated by two key notions: on the one hand, a dynamic of flux and stasis, and on the other, a series of interconnected and intermingled folds. iii To all the uprooted little geeks who had to rely more than most on their unseen surroundings. Acknowledgements This dissertation and the research behind it were made possible by the generous funding bestowed by the Fonds québecois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC), the Faculty of Arts and Science of Concordia University, Hydro-Québec, and the office of Dr. Ollivier Dyens. I extend my utmost gratitude to my committee of supervisors. Thank you, Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim, for your sharp, incisive, helpful comments throughout this process. Thank you, Dr. Bart Simon, for being open-minded and enthusiastic about a project that many would have dismissed as too scattered and swarming. And thank you, Dr. Ollivier Dyens, for your inspiration, your tireless encouragement, your unrelenting advice and your kindness, not just throughout this process, but for the better part of my academic journey. My thanks go out to to the Department of Humanities, particularly its directors (past and present) and administrative staff, for their support, council and effectiveness. I wish to thank the research groups I was so fortunate to be an active part of throughout my PhD years: Penser la théorie (in particular Dr. Mirella Vadean), and Figura, le centre de recherche sur le texte et l’imaginaire. Evolving within these stimulating environments exposed me to bright minds and ideas, which have without a doubt helped me cobble together my own line of critical thinking. Thank you to my parents, for allowing me to pursue this project freely. Thank you for giving me the kind of childhood where I had to do my homework, but was also free to watch cartoons and play video games – and was actually encouraged to read comics. To my beloved husband Laurent, thank you for supporting me, technologically and emotionally, through the highs and lows of this process, and for regularly reminding me of how lucky I am to be working on “fun” things. Thank you also for not only embracing my geekiness, but for taking part in it. And finally, to my “thesis baby,” Raphaël: thank you for being such a good boy that I was able to finish my dissertation even while caring for you full-time. I cannot wait until you are old enough to read manga. iv Table of contents List of figures .................................................................................................................. vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One – Preliminary clarifications: Tying up the first loose threads ........... 20 A – Manga and anime: A history of “strange Japanese pictures” and their travels ........ 20 B – Video Games ............................................................................................................ 28 a) A brief history of console video games ................................................................. 28 b) The question of cultural odour ............................................................................. 32 c) Addressing the exceptionalist argument ............................................................... 35 d) Games as part of a media ecology ....................................................................... 40 C – Culture and the transcultural .................................................................................... 41 D – Corpus description ................................................................................................... 47 Chapter Two – The Imaginary .................................................................................... 52 A – The imaginary and myth .......................................................................................... 53 a) Myth as universal .................................................................................................. 53 b) Myth, timelessness and process ............................................................................ 57 c) Myth, sacredness and culture ............................................................................... 61 B – The imaginary, motifs and visual culture ................................................................. 70 C – The imaginary as processual phenomenological space ............................................ 78 a) Space and (visual) culture .................................................................................... 78 b) The phenomenology of media ............................................................................... 87 Chapter Three – Content motifs, part one: Thematic mechanisms ......................... 93 A – Various thematic motifs ........................................................................................... 94 a) Questioning of reality ........................................................................................... 94 b) Metamorphosis and plasticity ............................................................................. 102 c) Status quo and progress, Humans and Others ................................................... 107 d) Fetish objects ...................................................................................................... 115 B – Traces of “Japaneseness” ....................................................................................... 119 a) Cultural everyday ............................................................................................... 120 b) Myth and history: Tropes of Japanese traditional culture ................................. 123 c) Depictions of foreigners and East/West dichotomy ............................................ 132 Chapter Four – Content motifs, part two: Structuring mechanisms ..................... 140 A - Genre as structuring mechanism: The case of combat shōnen and its implications ................................................................................................................... 140 a) Overall structure in combat shōnen ................................................................... 141 b) The motif of shugyō ............................................................................................. 149 c) Combat structure ................................................................................................ 155 d) Implications for shōnen and the rest of the corpus: structuring