Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime
- The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Japanese Names, Terms, and Titles
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Claimed Origins and Overlooked Traditions
- 1 Premodern Roots of Story-Manga?
- 2 Newspaper Comic Strips
- 3 Astro Boy and the “Weaponized” Children of Wartime Japan
- Part II Drawing and Movement
- Part III Sound
- Part IV Narrative
- Part V Characters
- Part VI Genres
- Part VII Forms of Production
- Part VIII Forms of Distribution
- Part IX Forms of Use
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Literature
1 - Premodern Roots of Story-Manga?
from Part I - Claimed Origins and Overlooked Traditions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime
- The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Japanese Names, Terms, and Titles
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Claimed Origins and Overlooked Traditions
- 1 Premodern Roots of Story-Manga?
- 2 Newspaper Comic Strips
- 3 Astro Boy and the “Weaponized” Children of Wartime Japan
- Part II Drawing and Movement
- Part III Sound
- Part IV Narrative
- Part V Characters
- Part VI Genres
- Part VII Forms of Production
- Part VIII Forms of Distribution
- Part IX Forms of Use
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Literature
Summary
The most-cited progenitors of manga (and, in part, anime) are medieval picture scrolls (emaki), Hokusai Manga, and 18th-century graphic fiction called kibyōshi. This chapter revisits them from the perspective of modern story-manga. It analyzes textual and material affordances of a manga-typical reading experience, stretching from devices of visual storytelling to publication formats and participatory culture. The emphasis is on demonstrating that correlations of today’s manga with aesthetic traditions may be highly instructive depending on how they are performed, in particular, on which type of manga is compared to which art form from the past against which set of contemporary concerns. As part of this endeavor, the historical contingency of “manga” comes to the fore: as visual art based on line drawing, but also as visual narrative realized through sequenced images and facilitated by transdiegetic devices; as fiction but also non-fiction narratives and non-narrative manuals; as not necessarily “cinematic” but also “theatrical” graphic narratives; and as defined by textual properties but also (sub)cultural practices of use.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime , pp. 19 - 30Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024