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PostGender: Gender, Sexuality and Performativity in Japanese Culture
Editor: Ayelet Zohar
Date Of Publication: Jul 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0990-0
Isbn: 1-4438-0990-X
Postgender: Gender, Sexuality and Performativity in Japanese Culture is a collection of articles by leading researchers in the fields of gender studies, visual culture and performance studies in Japan. Articles in this volume discuss fundamental issues in relation to the body, sexuality, gender, and their respective representations in the visual field. The volume contains texts considering gender and temporality in Takashi Murakami's superflat dimension; gender issues in relation to male pregnancy, motherhood and the family as represented in Hiroko Okada, Mako Idemitsu, Miwako Ishiuchi and Yasumasa Morimura's works; sexual identity of the otaku, and sexual representations in manga and anime; sexual organ depictions in the contemporary Japanese art and photography of Yayoi Kusama, Ryudai Takano, Yurie Nagashima, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Makoto Saito's advertisements; literary representations of hermaphrodites in Tokuda Shusei's Arakure and fictional genders in Kachikujin Yapû; the history of prostitution and Bubu de la Madeliene and Yoshiko Shimada's performance art; a Buddhist reading of Yoko Ono's Cut Piece; gender passing and masquerade in Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata's Butoh; and gender issues in Duras / Rennais' Hiroshima mon amour. The contributors include leading researchers and curators such as Jennifer Robertson, Michiko Kasahara, Tamaki Saito, Maki Isaka, Bracha Ettinger and others.

Ayelet Zohar curated the exhibition PostGender: Gender, Sexuality and Performativity in Contemporary Japanese Art, Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, Haifa, Israel (2005). She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in Japanese Studies, Freeman Spogli Institute, Stanford University (2007–2009).

“Adopting the temporality of post-gender, this exciting collection of essays goes well beyond the boundaries of dominant psychoanalytic paradigms in its explorations of the rich, mutually transformative relations between artistic practice and gender theory in contemporary Japan.”

—Brett de Bary, Professor, Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Cornell University

“The essays are eclectic in both theme and style, running the gamut from highly theoretical discussions of Freudian psychoanalytic discourse to practical descriptions of how gender has been portrayed in Japanese butoh performance.

. . . the book's numerous black-and-white images depict everything from traditional shunga to monster film promos; these are extremely helpful.

Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.”

—C. Lanki, University of British Columbia, Choice Magazine, Vol. 47, No. 11, August 2010

Price Uk Gbp: 44.99
Price Us Usd: 67.99

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)

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