Transgressing Death in Japanese Popular Culture

Cesar, Miguel

This book focuses on the theme of the transgression of life and death boundaries through its representation in Japanese contemporary visual media, more specifically in the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the animated film Journey to Agartha, and the computer game Shadow of the Colossus. By addressing how the theme was constructed by three different media and what these texts say about it, the book focuses on the narrativization of Japanese ontological anxieties. The book argues that, although these texts deal with matters of afterlife through fantasy worlds, the content of their stories, the archetypes of their characters, and their existential journeys echo contextually-situated conversations. Matters of gender, societal structure and, most of all, the tensions between individuality and sociocentrism not only permeate but structure the interrogation of our relation to the afterlife. This book stands to contribute significantly to media studies, literarystudies, and Japanese studies.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Pivot

Publication Date: 2020-08-28

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9783030508791

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-50880-7

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 138