Shōjo Manga Elements Imported to Contemporary Japanese Literature - A Case Study of Miura Shion

The present paper discusses how various elements in shōjo manga (Japanese comics for girls) have been incorporated in works of Japanese contemporary literature. The connection between shōjo manga and literature was pointed out for the first time when the novel Kitchen by Yoshimoto Banana was published in 1987. This paper argues that this connection has developed further since then, focusing on one of the most active writers in contemporary Japanese literature, Miura Shion[1]. The paper briefly introduces the genre shōjo manga and describes its connection with the novel Kitchen before analysing a short story and an essay by Miura Shion, focusing both on their motifs and styles, to identify elements influenced by shōjo manga.

Makna Mimpi, Kematian, dan Kecemasan pada Cerpen Shirakawa Yo Fune Karya Yoshimoto Banana

This article aimed to describe a human confusion and inner turmoil that is often found in the lives of modern society in Japan, such as the infidelity, love, death, and anxiety that trigger inner conflict through the analysis of characters in the short story Shirakawa Yo Fune, by Yoshimoto Banana. This article uses Sigmund Freud's theory of literary psychoanalysis. The analysis shows the lives of characters are so individuayl and does not interact much with the surrounding community, so that the death of the only person closest triggers anxiety in the character. Anxiety occurs because the tensions are not well reduced. So each character identifies and displacemen to reduced the anxiety. It also motivates character to carry out defense mechanisms in the form of repression which then dreams, daydreaming and fixation. Furthermore analysis of dreams and daydream shows that these situation in case of condensation, displacemen and symbolization.Keywords: fixation, condensation, dream, displacemen, symbolization Penelitian ini meneliti kekalutan dan kekacauan batin manusia yang banyak dijumpai pada kehidupan masyarakat modern di Jepang, seperti perselingkuhan, percintaan, kematian, dan kecemasan yang memicu konflik batin melalui analisis tokoh tokoh pada cerita pendek Shirakawa Yo Fune, karya Yoshimoto Banana. Penelitian mengunakan teori psikoanalisis sastra Sigmund Freud. Analisis yang dilakukan memperlihatkan kehidupan para tokoh yang sangat individual dan tidak banyak berinteraksi dengan masyarakat sekitar sehingga kematian satu-satunya orang terdekat memicu kecemasan pada diri tokoh. Kecemasan terjadi karena ketegangan-ketegangan yang tidak tereduksi dengan baik. Untuk mengatasi ketegangan, masing-masing tokoh melakukan identifikasi dan pemindahan Kecemasan juga memotivasi tokoh untuk melakukan mekanisme pertahanan berupa represi yang kemudiam memicu munculnya mimpi, lamunan serta, fiksasi. Selanjutnya analisis terhadap mimpi dan lamunan menunjukkan bahwa mimpi serta lamunan tersebut telah mengalami kondensasi, pemindahan dan simbolisasi Kata Kunci: fiksasi, kondensasi, mimpi, pemindahan, simbolisasi

Nostalgia as a means to overcome trauma: the case of Yoshimoto Banana’s “Sweet Hereafter”

The natsukashisa (nostalgia) is a common key to interpretation of novels written by the Japanese author Yoshimoto Banana. Considered as the desire for a replay of life, nostalgia is evaluated as a solution for the sensation of emptiness and solitude attributed to modern life; a gap that can be bridged by memory, recollection and flash-backs of the protagonists in Yoshimoto’s novels. As a representation for something gone, the objects of this nostalgic feeling assume different forms in Yoshimoto’s works: a faraway house, a lost person, a feeling perceived and then missed; dreams, hallucinations, images and paintings: everything is transformed by the author in a vehicle to allow the reader to sympathize with the protagonists and share the same nostalgic feeling. Author’s attempt is to encourage the young readers to keep on seeking the lost self in the past in order to not betray one’s identity. This is the main topic one can also recognise in her novel called Sweet Hereafter, a publication in which nostalgia for a self lost in a car accident is compared to the one felt by the hisaisha of Tōhoku region who lost everything after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11th March 2011. Here Yoshimoto suggests natsukashisa as the possible way to overcome the traumatic experience of witnessing Japanese Daishinsai. This brief investigation proposes a literary case study that highlights the relations between trauma and memory, with a particular focus on nostalgia considered as a positive means for overcoming traumatic experience.