Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age (Asian Voices) [Paperback]

Mark McLelland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2005 | Series: Asian Voices

Scholarship on Japan has recently broadened to include minority perspectives on communities from marginal workers to those whose sexuality has long been overlooked. This volume, with its combination of fieldwork in the gay and lesbian communities and the use of historical sources such as journals and documents, breaks important new ground in this field. It examines gay life in the Japanese Pacific War, addresses transgender and lesbian as well as gay issues, examines the interface of queer society with the U.S. occupation and the international community, contests major interpretations of contemporary queer society, and introduces readers to the development of lesbian, transgender, and gay communities in postwar Japan.Queer Japan from the Pacific Age to the Internet Age provides a historical outline of the development of sexual-minority identity categories and community formation through a detailed analysis of both niche and mainstream publications, including magazines, newspapers, biographies, memoirs, and Internet sites. The material is also augmented with interview data from individuals who have had a long association with Japan's queer cultures. Including a wealth of images from the "perverse press," this book will appeal to students and general readers interested in modern and contemporary Japan and in gender studies and sexuality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[This] book will serve as a welcome corrective to sparse earlier publications that have overly generalized, homogenized and singularized homosexuality and other queer experiences in Japan. The book will be appreciated by students of Japan's post–World War II era who have found it difficult so far to position Japan's queer culture in an international setting. (Asian Studies Review )

This book provides an accessible and readable introduction to subcultures which have received little attention in English-language scholarship (or in mainstream Japanese scholarship), drawing on little-known archival sources and making good use of more recent Internet sources. There is no comparable study available. (Vera Mackie )

A detailed and interesting account. McLelland first discusses the emergence of the category of sexuality within Japanese discourse, then looks at the vast and neglected field of magazines and other periodicals that began to appear postwar. (Donald Richie The Japan Times )

In this important new book on Japanese culture, McLelland argues against using Western concepts when studying Japan, especially the topics of this book, since Japan historically had no categories of "heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual" or anti-gay oppression from religion, medicine, or law. . . . Highly recommended. (Choice )

This is history of sexuality at its best, both insightful and finely detailed. Mark McLelland has identified cultural phenomena that might otherwise have been neglected, and has brought them together in a sustained and compelling analysis of queer Japan. (Peter Cryle )

[This] book will serve as a welcome corrective to sparse earlier publications that have overly generalized, homogenized and singularized homosexuality and other queer experiences in Japan. The book will be appreciated by students of Japan's post?World WarII era who have found it difficult so far to position Japan's queer culture in an international setting.... (Asian Studies Review )

Queer Japan from the PacificWar to the Internet Age is an important accomplishment in the field of Japan studies. [It] will be indispensable for anyone embarking on research on gender and sexuality in Japan, and will also be valuable in undergraduate and graduate courses to increase the diversity of our representations and understandings of Japanese society. (Journal Of Japanese Studies )

. . . a major conribution to Japan studies.Queer Japan will be indispensible for anyone embaking on reserach on gender and sexuality in Japan, and will also be valuable in undergraduate and graduate courses to increase the diversity of our representations and understandins of Japanese society. (Journal Of Japanese Studies )

McLellands' Queer Japan is a serious contribution to queer scholarship, blending as it does primary and secondary source materials, well-covered territories, and new information for Anglophone audiences. Overall, the book is well researched, well written, and well edited and brings new information forward for inspection. (The Journal Of Asian Studies )

Meticulously researched and engagingly told. . . .McLelland's accessibly style and knack for provocative translation ensure it will appeal equally to those with a passing interest in gender studies, Japan, or both. (Justin Ellis )

A richly detailed history of sexual subcultures in postwar Japan. Making use of an impressive array of materials culled from journalistic accounts as well as literary, sexological, and social science texts, McLelland provides Anglophone readers with a wide-ranging introduction to the ways in which various forms of nonnormative sexuality have been imagined and experience in Japan from the 1920s to the present. (Journal Of The History Of Sexuality )

About the Author

Mark McLelland is lecturer in sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, at the University of Wollongong.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742537870
• ISBN-13: 978-0742537873
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,680,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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