Persistently Postwar
Media and the Politics of Memory in Japan
Will be published approx. on 15. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-83695-662-4 (ISBN)
Description
From melodramas to experimental documentaries to anime, mass media in Japan constitute a key site in which the nation's social memory is articulated, disseminated, and contested. Through a series of stimulating case studies, this volume examines the political and cultural representations of Japan's past, showing how they have reinforced personal and collective narratives while also formulating new cultural meanings, both on a local scale and in the context of transnational media production and consumption. Drawing upon diverse disciplinary insights and methodologies, these studies collectively offer a nuanced account in which mass media function as much more than a simple ideological tool.
Reviews / Votes
"Persistently Postwar uses a variety of detailed case studies to demonstrate how the contested legacy of the Asia-Pacific War has helped to shape the artistic and intellectual life of postwar Japan. This thought-provoking and highly readable collection of essays leaves the reader with deep insights into not only depictions of war in Japanese popular culture, but also how the war has affected broader cultural production from yakuza films to the anime industry." * Philip Seaton, Tokyo University of Foreign StudiesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Bibliography; Index; 27 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
310 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83695-662-4 (9781836956624)
DOI
10.3167/9781785339592
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Blai Guarne | Artur Lozano-Mendez | Dolores P. Martinez
Persistently Postwar
Media and the Politics of Memory in Japan
E-Book
03/2019
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€22.49
Available for download
Blai Guarné | Artur Lozano-Méndez | Dolores P. Martinez
Persistently Postwar
Media and the Politics of Memory in Japan
E-Book
03/2019
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€22.49
Available for download
Persons
Blai Guarne is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the East Asian Studies Programme at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. He has been Visiting Fellow at the University of Tokyo and a Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University. His publications include Antropologia de Japon (Bellaterra 2017) and Escaping Japan: Reflections on Estrangement and Exile in the Twenty-first Century (Routledge 2018).
Content
Introduction: The Politics of Media and Memory Representation in Japan
Blai Guarne, Artur Lozano-Mendez, and Dolores P. Martinez
PART I: WAR'S AFTERMATH
Chapter 1. The Death of Certainty: Memory, guilt and redemption in Ikiru
Dolores P. Martinez
Chapter 2. Postwar Narratives and the Avant-garde Documentary: Tokyo 1958 and Furyo Shonen
Marcos Centeno Martin
Chapter 3. Radical Subjectivity as a Counter to Japanese Humanist Cinema: Oshima Nagisa's Nuberu Bagu
Ferran de Vargas
PART II: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
Chapter 4. Recreating Memory? The Drama Watashi wa kai ni naritai and Its Remakes
Griseldis Kirsch
Chapter 5. From Myth to Cult: Tragic Heroes, Parody and Gender Politics in the 1960s-1970s 'Bad Girls' Cinema of Japan
Laura Treglia
Chapter 6. Collective Remorse for the Past: Japanese Film and TV Representations of the 1960s Student Movement
Katsuyuki Hidaka
PART III: THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
Chapter 7. Depicting the Persistence of Being Postwar: Eden of the East
Artur Lozano-Mendez
Chapter 8. Rethinking Anime in East Asia: Creative Labour in Transnational Production, Or, What Gets Lost in Translation
Tomohiro Morisawa
Afterword: The Persistence of Trauma
Dolores P. Martinez, Blai Guarne, and Artur Lozano-Mendez
Blai Guarne, Artur Lozano-Mendez, and Dolores P. Martinez
PART I: WAR'S AFTERMATH
Chapter 1. The Death of Certainty: Memory, guilt and redemption in Ikiru
Dolores P. Martinez
Chapter 2. Postwar Narratives and the Avant-garde Documentary: Tokyo 1958 and Furyo Shonen
Marcos Centeno Martin
Chapter 3. Radical Subjectivity as a Counter to Japanese Humanist Cinema: Oshima Nagisa's Nuberu Bagu
Ferran de Vargas
PART II: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
Chapter 4. Recreating Memory? The Drama Watashi wa kai ni naritai and Its Remakes
Griseldis Kirsch
Chapter 5. From Myth to Cult: Tragic Heroes, Parody and Gender Politics in the 1960s-1970s 'Bad Girls' Cinema of Japan
Laura Treglia
Chapter 6. Collective Remorse for the Past: Japanese Film and TV Representations of the 1960s Student Movement
Katsuyuki Hidaka
PART III: THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
Chapter 7. Depicting the Persistence of Being Postwar: Eden of the East
Artur Lozano-Mendez
Chapter 8. Rethinking Anime in East Asia: Creative Labour in Transnational Production, Or, What Gets Lost in Translation
Tomohiro Morisawa
Afterword: The Persistence of Trauma
Dolores P. Martinez, Blai Guarne, and Artur Lozano-Mendez