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Paper short abstract:

This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to the topic of precarity, focusing on how Fumiyo Kōno portrays it in In This Corner of the World. The discussion is framed by an overview of the structural precarity that affects women’s endeavors and the depiction of such precarity in manga.

Paper long abstract:

This paper uses Fumiyo Kōno’s In This Corner of the World (2007-2009) as a case study to analyze the depiction of women’s precarity in manga. That said, the analysis takes into consideration the diachronic dimension of precarious social circumstances affecting Japanese women.

The main goal is to discuss how 21st-century shōjo manga (manga for girls) frequently deals with existential precarity: that is, making their characters struggle to get by, feel acknowledged, and/or find a place of belonging (ibasho). Kōno’s work provides interesting exploration grounds because it blends elements from shōjo and seinen manga (manga for men of age). The reading of such a patchwork of features, however, cannot ignore the fact that seinen is steadily being de-genderized. Thus, instead of examining seinen under the traditional categorization, it can be more useful to think about it as a genre for adult readers regardless of their gender.

The analysis wonders whether it is possible to talk about a feminization process of the kinds of existential angst mentioned above: a development that would be rather close to the feminization of, at least, part of the Japanese postwar legacy. As its background, the paper addresses the question of manga genres—some of the implications of being labeled based simultaneously on the age and gender of the readers—as well as the usage of certain tropes to depict heteronormative social roles. Hence the debate interlinks gender and media studies to offer some thoughts on women’s writing, symbolic violence, and social precarity derived from advanced capitalism.