Tezuka Osamu: An intertextual history of comics in post-World War II Japan.

摘要

Manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese animation, also called Japanimation) have become a standard part of American comic book culture in the past two decades. However, the works of Tezuka Osamu (1928--1989), often referred to as "God of manga" or the inventor of modern manga, have only recently started being translated into English. Tezuka is known for his long, plot-driven graphic novels with dynamic panel layout. He produced over 150,000 pages of comics in his lifetime, consistently working as one of the top cartoonists in Japan. As the first full-length study of Tezuka's works in the English language, this dissertation investigates Tezuka's works in relation to their cultural, social and political climate. Situated in the era of rapid industrialization and cultural importation, Tezuka's works serve as an ideal site of investigation for theories of intertextuality, parody, theatricality, performativity, as well as inter-media and intercultural adaptation.; The influences that shaped Tezuka's works are complex, based on his knowledge of film, theatre, and other media. Tezuka's comic images often allude to specific innovations in film technology in the post-war era, such as deep focus cinematography. His application of the Hollywood Star System introduced the dynamics of celebrity acting and character-actor separation. Borrowed themes and genres from popular films reveal the changing status of domestic and imported (particularly American) films in Japanese popular culture of the twentieth century.; Tezuka often quoted images from theatre productions of an all-female revue company Takarazuka Kagekidan (founded 1913), which is known for its extravagant scenery, costumes, and performances by its flamboyant female-to-male impersonators. The theatre company's rigorous training system, male-dominated administration, as well as its public performance of gender and hierarchy also make their way into Tezuka's comics, mostly in the form of his cross-dressed heroines. The images of the Orientalized Middle East, auto-Orientalized Japan, as well as romanticized West, all of which serve as staples on Takarazuka stage (often adapted from French revue), were also translated into Tezuka's comics.; Manga is a hybrid art form, and Tezuka is not so much a "God" of manga who created the genre from nothingness, but rather a multidisciplinary artist who freely borrowed vocabularies from various art forms to transform his medium. Tezuka's works served as self-conscious, multi-layered parody of Japan's post-war era, capturing, representing, and re-performing its cultural and ideological shifts.