Erotic grotesque nonsense [[electronic resource] ] : the mass culture of Japanese modern times / / Miriam Silverberg

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910455415603321
• Autore: Silverberg Miriam Rom <1951-2008.>
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2006
• ISBN: 1-282-35596-1; 9786612355967; 0-520-92462-2
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (423 p.)
• Collana: Asia Pacific modern ; ; 1
• Disciplina: 306.0952/09041
• Soggetti: Popular culture - Japan - History - 20th century; Electronic books.; Japan Civilization 1912-1926; Japan Civilization 1926-1945
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: "A Philip E. Lilienthal book in Asian studies"--Jacket.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-343) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Japanese modern times -- Japanese modern within modernity -- Japanese modern sites -- The modern girl as militant (movement on the streets) -- The café waitress sang the blues -- Friends of the movies (from Ero to empire) -- The household becomes modern life -- Asakusa--honky-tonk tempo -- Asakusa eroticism -- Down-and-out grotesquerie -- Modern nonsense.
• Sommario/riassunto: This history of Japanese mass culture during the decades preceding Pearl Harbor argues that the new gestures, relationship, and humor of ero-guro-nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) expressed a self-consciously modern ethos that challenged state ideology and expansionism. Miriam Silverberg uses sources such as movie magazines, ethnographies of the homeless, and the most famous photographs from this era to capture the spirit, textures, and language of a time when the media reached all classes, connecting the rural social order to urban mores. Employing the concept of montage as a metaphor that informed the organization of Japanese mass culture during the 1920's and 1930's, Silverberg challenges the erasure of Japanese colonialism and its legacies. She evokes vivid images from ; daily life during the 1920's and 1930's, including details about food, housing, fashion, modes of popular entertainment, and attitudes toward sexuality. Her innovative study demonstrates how new public spaces, new relationships within the family, and an ironic sensibility expressed the attitude of Japanese consumers who identified with the modern as providing a cosmopolitan break from tradition at the same time that they mobilized for war.