Undergraduate Menu

• Introduction
• Why Study with us?
• Degree Schemes
• Part I
• Part II Modules
• Study Abroad
• Funding
• Our Students Say
• Visit Us
• Careers
• FAQs
• How to Apply
• Current Students

HIST264: The Floating World: A History of Japanese Manga and Popular Culture, 1945-

This module is designed as an introduction to the history of Japanese Manga (graphic arts) and its impact on Japanese and global popular culture. Manga may be taken to mean, comics or cartoons (kommiku) though its etymology may be traced to the late 18th century, meaning ‘whimsical pictures’. The present form is the legacy of kibyôshi, or pictorial fiction of the Edo Period (mid-18th century) and may be seen as a vibrant form of political satire that became circulated in the popular imagination. While Manga today traces its growth from shortly after World War II, and the influence of American and Western print, its complex history in Japanese art may be traced since the mid-Edo period of the Tokugawa shogunate (late 18th century). Though concentrating on post-War Japanese Manga, it's engagement with Western animation, the Japanese obsession with the Atomic bomb, and the rise of Japanese pop-art, this module will also provide a brief historical background of Edo art and artistic processes from the late 18th century, the opening up of Japan, and the Meiji Restoration period. This module is interdisciplinary and will feature photography, cinema, contemporary art, literature and material culture. Among the themes covered will be:

• kibyôshi, and Edo Art
• Ukiyo-e
• Taisho period and Children's Manga
• WW2 and the American Occupation
• Hiroshima and the Atomic Bomb
• Samurai Manga
• Astro Boy and Osamu Tezuka
• Machiko Hasegawa and later shojo manga
• Gender and Manga
• Miyazaki and Anime
• Robots, Monsters and Gods
• Cuteness and Material Culture (Global popularity of Sanrio)
• Murakami, the superflat and contemporary Japanese Art

For further information on HIST264 visit the Lancaster University Online Courses Handbook.

Save this page: Del.icio.us Digg It Reddit Facebook Stumble It!