Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover
  • Book
  • © 2020

Transgressing Death in Japanese Popular Culture

Authors:

  1. Miguel Cesar

    1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Looks at the framing of death and related themes through new popular culture forms such as manga, anime and computer games and their ontologies
  • Conducts a philosophical investigation of the connections between traditional Japanese art and literature’s depictions of the boundary between life and death, and newly emerging reinterpretations of those depictions in contemporary Japanese media products
  • Connects the theme of death with contextual concerns on individualism, collectivism and the construction of new forms of community in contemporary Japan

  • 1087 Accesses

Sections

Buy it now

eBook USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Miguel Cesar
    Pages 1-21

  7. Conclusions

    • Miguel Cesar
    Pages 127-136

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 137-138
    PDF
Back to top

About this book

This book focuses on the theme of the transgression of life and death boundaries through its representation in Japanese contemporary visual media, more specifically in the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the animated film Journey to Agartha, and the computer game Shadow of the Colossus. By addressing how the theme was constructed by three different media and what these texts say about it, the book focuses on the narrativization of Japanese ontological anxieties. The book argues that, although these texts deal with matters of afterlife through fantasy worlds, the content of their stories, the archetypes of their characters, and their existential journeys echo contextually-situated conversations. Matters of gender, societal structure and, most of all, the tensions between individuality and sociocentrism not only permeate but structure the interrogation of our relation to the afterlife. This book stands to contribute significantly to media studies, literarystudies, and Japanese studies.
Back to top

Keywords

Back to top

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Miguel Cesar

Back to top

About the author

Miguel Cesar completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He obtained his degree in History at the University Complutense of Madrid in 2013, an MSc in American Anthropology at the same university, and an MSc in Japanese Society and Culture at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently an independent researcher studying the role of contemporary Japanese visual media in the shaping of current discourses on individualism and community.
Back to top

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Transgressing Death in Japanese Popular Culture

  • Authors: Miguel Cesar

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50880-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50879-1Published: 28 August 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50882-1Published: 28 August 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-50880-7Published: 27 August 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 138

  • Topics: Asian Culture, Popular Culture , Comics Studies

Back to top

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top
Access via your institution

Buy it now

eBook USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Search

Navigation