SUBVERSIVE TRADEMARKS OF MANGA CULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF POPCULTURAL GLOBAL VILLAGE

Text topic: cultures of resistance

Text author: Ана Дошен

In spite of being initially produced for local audiences, Japanese comics

– manga – successfully transversed the national borders and increased

the economic and cultural significance of Japan. Manga influence has

been recognized within cool Japan domains of pop culture industry –

film, music, anime, video games, merchandising. Drawing on Stuart

Hall’s notion that popular culture is a space of constant tension and

struggle, I reinvestigate the subversive trademarks of this “juvenile”

Japanese medium, in terms of visual and narrative style, as well as its

mechanism to generate resistance to American mass culture hegemony.

Furthermore, the emphasis is on a controversial lolicon genre which

can be read as manga rebellion against conservatism in the realm of

fiction.