Manga as a Social Critique: Focusing on Child Abuse
A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 1505
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Child abuse is a most heinous act, yet its seriousness and complexity have only been recognised in recent decades. In contextual Japan, deep-seated social conformity made child abuse almost invisible until the 1990s.
Considering the extreme difficulty of speaking out in Japan, some manga played an important role in revealing the silenced voice and urging social awareness, much earlier than mass media. For example, in 1971, Ikeda Riyoko’s Ikitete yokatta! (lit., It is Good to be Alive!) depicted an orphan boy’s abuse by his stepmother. Takemiya Keiko’s lengthy Kaze to Ki no Uta (lit. A Poem/Song of Wind and Trees) also explored sexual abuse involving boys, revealing traumatic and complex victimisation. The 1990s saw the emergence of manga that focused on diverse child abuse, including realistic and educational works, e.g., Sasaya Nanae’s Kōritsuita me (lit. Frozen Eyes), urging social debate and legal change.
Manga contributed to activism being multimodal and informative, capable of encouraging readers to be empathetically aligned to the characters’ emotions and perspectives. Nevertheless, essentially being cheap entertainment, manga is ambiguous and can be consumed both in enlightening and harmful ways.
This Special Issue holistically analyses the expressive power of manga as social critique and activism.
Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a short bibliography to both Dr. Mio Bryce at [email protected]. Abstracts are due by 31 March 2023. Finished essays of around 6000–12000 words are due by 30 June 2023.
Dr. Mio Bryce
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- manga
- child abuse
- sexual abuse
- social critique
- activism
- Japan
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