Schedule / Horaire
Panel A: Wednesday 23 April 2014, 9h-10h30.
Panel B: Thursday 24 April 2014, 9h-10h30.
Room: Vendôme.
Leaders / Organisateurs
Yilin Chen, Providence University (Taiwan) and Ryuta Minami, Shirayuri College (Japan)
Participants
Session A: Theoretical Perspectives on Manga and Animation Shakespeares
Chair: Ryuta Minami (Shirayuri College, Japan)
- Yilin Chen, Providence University (Taiwan)
Frailty, Thy Name Is Woman”: A Striking Absence of Gertrude and Her Sexuality in the Taiwanese Graphic Novels of Hamlet - Ma Yujin, University of London (UK)
A Brief Study of the Readership of Chinese Shakespeare Manga - Ryuta Minami, Shirayuri College (Japan)
Global Dissemination of Fragments of Shakespeare in Japanese Anime (Animation Films)
Session B: Practitioners’ Perspectives on Shakespeares and Manga
Chair: Yilin Chen, Providence University (Taiwan)
- Yukari Yoshihara, University of Tsukuba (Japan)
Which is more global, manga or Shakespeare? - Harumo Sanazaki,(Manga Artist (Japan) (with Ryuta Minami as an interpreter)
Creating Manga Shakespeare for Mature female Readers: a Sex-Positive Feminist’s Point of View - Emma Hayley, Managing Director of SelfMadeHero (UK)
On SelfMadeHero’s Manga Shakespeare Series - Sonia Leon, Manga Artist (UK), creator of Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Abstracts / Résumés
1. Yilin Chen, Providence University (Taiwan)
Frailty, Thy Name Is Woman”: A Striking Absence of Gertrude and Her Sexuality in the Taiwanese Graphic Novels of Hamlet
This paper will examine three graphic novels of Hamlet on the Taiwanese market in the twenty first century, especially the way in which Gertrude and her sexuality are represented to clarify the invisible self-censorship. It looks into the scenes in relation to Gertrude’s chastity and her sexual desires in these adaptations and find out the differences in the portrayal of Gertrude’s mother image between the two local adaptations and one British edition. In this pioneering research, I propose both Confucianism and shôjo manga traditions may be responsible for the absence of Gertrude and her sexual appeal.
2. Ma Yujin, University of London (UK)
A Brief Study of the Readership of Chinese Shakespeare Manga
Following the trend of adapting Shakespearean texts for comic books, a rich diversity of Chinese Shakespeare manga has been produced in the past decade. Some are published for the school education market and some seek to contribute to popularize Shakespeare’s works. However, there has been little previous discussion or contextualization of these manga versions. Drawing on the different publication features and the manga readership, this paper will explore how Chinese Shakespeare manga combines canonical Shakespeare with popular youth culture and to what extent Chinese manga versions have influenced readers’ understanding of the original Shakespeare works.
3. Ryuta Minami, Shirayuri College (Japan)
Global Dissemination of Fragments of Shakespeare in Japanese Anime (Animation Films)
Shakespearean productions in mass/pop visual culture do not seem to have received due considerations in spite of their pervasive presences in manga comics and animated films. These pop cultural Shakespeares are often globally and collaboratively shared and circulated across cultural, linguistic and geographical boundaries among fans of anime (animated films) and manga comics. In other words, pop cultural Shakespeares have become part of a global participatory cultural community, in which a spectator/consumer/fan becomes an active participant as commentator, collaborator or re-creator. This paper discusses a relationship between pop cultural re-productions of Shakespeare and his global dissemination through anime.
4. Yukari Yoshihara, University of Tsukuba (Japan)
Which is more global, manga or Shakespeare?
In this glocalized, multicultural and media-mix age, there is not much point to insist that Shakespeare is a monopoly of England. Likewise, it is anachronistic to argue that only manga produced by Japanese artists for Japanese readers is authentic. In an attempt to contextualize the following presentations by manganized Shakespeares by Sanazaki, Hayley and Leong, this presentation shows history, theory and practice of negotiations between Shakespeare and manga (and/or graphic novels). The question I would be raising is: which is more global, manga or Shakespeare? –or, is this question simply nonsense?
5. Harumo Sanazaki,(Manga Artist (Japan) (with Ryuta Minami as an interpreter)
Creating Manga Shakespeare for Mature female Readers: a Sex-Positive Feminist’s Point of View
Hamuro Sanazaki talks about her manga re-creations of Shakespeare’s plays which are targeted specifically at mature female readers. What is remarkable about her Shakespearean manga is the ways she shifts perspectives, focusing upon mature female characters such as Lady Capulet and Lady Macbeth, both of whom coincidentally are not given their first names in Shakespeare’s plays. In creating her Macbeth, for example, Sanazaki conducted historical researches to get her real name back for Lady Macbeth in her work. Sanazaki discusses why and how she manganises Shakespeare’s plays as a sex-positive feminist manga artist.
6. Emma Hayley, Managing Director of SelfMadeHero (UK)
On SelfMadeHero’s Manga Shakespeare Series
Emma Hayley talks about the Manga Shakespeare series from its conception to its execution and its success over the last seven years. She talks about why the medium of manga is a natural fit for Shakespeare’s plays, the team behind the series and the decisions made on editing Shakespeare’s words and re-inventing his works in new settings. While some may think Shakespeare would have been turning in his grave, she explains why she thinks that Shakespeare would have championed this pioneering way of presenting his works.
7. Sonia Leon, Manga Artist (UK), creator of Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
Sonia Leong talks about the challenges of adapting Romeo and Juliet, not just into the Manga format (which has its own storytelling techniques, panel design, emotional exaggeration and visual style) but also into the setting of modern-day Tokyo. She explains how she updated the character designs and their relationships to each other, and how she made key elements of the plot work with today’s technology and cultural norms.