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- Convenor:
-
Naoko Hosokawa
(University of Tokyo)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Blai Guarné
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
- Discussant:
-
James Stanlaw
(Illinois State University)
- Stream:
- Media Studies
- Location:
- I&D, Piso 4, Multiusos 3
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
Drawing on media accounts and from a cultural studies approach, the panel explores various aspects of the use of katakana in the Japanese media. The purpose of the panel is to shed light upon the role of script choice in media and contribute to the wider studies of contemporary Japanese media.
Long Abstract:
Drawing on media accounts and from a cultural studies approach, this panel explores various aspects of the use of katakana in the Japanese media. There are three script types in the modern Japanese writing system, kanji, hiragana, and katakana. While hiragana and kanji are used for Japanese vocabulary and long-standing highly assimilated Sino-Japanese loans, katakana is a syllabic script used mainly to transliterate and phonetically nativize Western loanwords. The use of katakana thus makes a visual differentiation based on the origin of the written word. However, there are cases in which Japanese words or names are intentionally written in katakana for a certain reason and in which its script is preferred or avoided as opposed to the hiragana or kanji equivalents. In order to explore this issue, the panel discusses why and how katakana is used in media and its cultural implications in contemporary Japan. It starts with a paper focused on the use of katakana for Japanese words and names in news and social media (Hosokawa), followed by a study on the use of katakana in new media communication through the analysis of net-poetry via twitter (De Pieri), and concluded by a paper on the implication of the use of katakana in the media representation of the place name Fukushima (Koyama). The impact of media is growing rapidly today and it is therefore essential to analyse how the use of language and script in news and social media influences our understanding of the world. Through the specific analysis of the katakana script, the discussions in this panel seek to shed light upon the role of script choice in media with the ultimate goal of contributing to the wider studies of contemporary Japanese media.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
Through the examination of the primary data extracted from media sources, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of contemporary Japanese national identity from the point of view of media discourse analysis.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines Japanese words written using katakana in the contemporary Japanese media. In modern Japanese, katakana is normally used for Western loanwords or mimetics. However, it is observed that today some Japanese words and names are sometimes written in katakana. They include those associated with past tragedies such as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Fukushima. However, there are also those associated with internationally renowned Japanese culture such as Kitano, Murakami, samurai, omotenashi (hospitality) etc. In both cases, the use of katakana for these words reflects the awareness of the Japanese that they are known to the world outside of Japan. Such words are treated as if they were 'reimported' to Japan following their acceptance as loanwords abroad. It also involves a change in perception on certain historical events or cultural products from something seen and discussed within Japan to something that is exposed to external eyes. In other words, when the script type is shifted to katakana, the gaze looking at Japan from within is replaced by a gaze looking at Japan from without. This shift is important in understanding the current dynamics of Japanese identity, given that identity is the combination of "our understanding and other people's understanding of who we are", as discussed by Anthony Cohen and others. With this observation in mind, the paper will analyse recurrent wordings in the news and social media, such as the co-occurrence of a katakana Japanese word and the term sekai (world) or hasshin (transmitting). The objective of this study is to reveal: 1) the types and characteristics of Japanese words and names written in katakana, 2) how those specific words are associated with Japanese national consciousness and 3) images of Japanese identity suggested by the use of katakana. It will be suggested that the katakana Japanese words represent images that the Japanese project themselves onto the eyes of the external world. Through the examination of the primary data extracted from media sources, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of contemporary Japanese national identity from the point of view of media discourse analysis.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on media accounts and from a cultural studies approach, this paper seeks to shed light upon the role of script in new media communication. The focus is given to the occurrence of the katakana script in the net-poetry produced by Wagō Ryōichi after the Fukushima triple disaster.
Paper long abstract:
Drawing on media accounts and from a cultural studies approach, this paper seeks to shed light upon the role of script in new media communication. The focus is given to the occurrence of the katakana script in the net-poetry produced by Wagō Ryōichi and shared on the social networks in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. Katakana experimentations were actually one of the solutions adopted by hibakusha poets who tried to find a way to describe the atomic bombing experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In their works, katakana syllabary contributes to reproduce the alienation felt by atomic bombing survivors and their struggles to transpose into words the horror they witnessed. In the social media era the so called net-poetry by Wagō Ryōichi seems to follow a similar approach in trying to depict the three-fold catastrophe of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that shocked Japan on 11 March 2011. This Fukushima-born poet started his poetical production on the theme of the Daishinsai as soon as 16 March by updating his twitter profile in the form of poetical tweets. Astonishment, fear, anger, mourning, discouragement, and sorrow: Wagō's poetry is a perfect blend of poetical lyricism and reporting news from the stricken areas, using social network as a vehicle to cross time and country boundaries. The positive feedback manifested by web users was so favourable to the extent that Wagō's poetry was then properly published in several poetic collections. Among the different stylistic and linguistic techniques adopted by the poet, katakana syllabary comes to the fore as a poetical means to narrate the unimaginable: the attempt to deal with 3.11 trauma daily. This paper aims to investigate katakana occurrence in Wagō Ryōichi's net-poetry in order to stress a possible red thread to connect Hiroshima and Nagasaki genbaku experience to the one of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant fallout. Ultimately, the goal of the paper is to explore the role of social media in mediating disaster, along with its potential to transform a personal traumatic experience into a collective memory of 3.11 catastrophe.