Scripting love: Television writers and the culture industry in contemporary Japan.

摘要

This dissertation explicates the cultural roles of television writers in contemporary Japan. Historically, writers have been important workers in television and cultural production in Japan. The 1990s especially witnessed a surge of young, successful writers who came to create and dominate a new televisual genre known as ren'ai dorama [love story]. The genre, which typically features young, heterosexual characters in present-day Tokyo, articulates an unwavering urge to engage with the notion and experiences of love in a contemporary context. By constructing this genre, young Japanese television writers as cultural workers---of the culture industry and of a more inclusive, lived definition of culture---transform the popular discourse of love. This study seeks to elucidate their roles by investigating their (1) relations with the Japanese television industry, (2) negotiations with other drama workers, (3) innovation of a genre tradition, and (4) appropriation of popular culture.; The emergence of young, popular writers in Japan can be traced to the institutional interests and strategies of the Japanese television industry in the late 1980s. Television stations---the main production site of ren'ai dorama---coordinated their resources to attract young writers so as to capture audiences of the same generation. Writers collaborate closely with producers, actors, and directors to create contemporary love stones. Their interactions are individualized but overlapping, and such "producerly contexts" define writers' creative roles and input. Drama workers' shared background and professional experience generated a well-orchestrated televisual language that interrogates and articulates love verbally, visually, and musically. Finally, as "love story" auteurs, certain writers have developed distinctive oeuvres of love by incorporating, modifying, and appropriating intertextual elements of the Japanese popular culture.