Reading Comic Books Critically (Paperback)

Fang-Tzu Hsu

ISBN 10: 1433188473 / ISBN 13: 9781433188473

Published by Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 2021

About this Item

Paperback. Education knows no boundaries but hot button issues, like their students love for comic books, highlight school, teacher and parent bias. Japanese comic books (manga) play an important role in the lives of most Taiwanese teenagers. This study includes surveys, a textual analysis of five student-selected manga series and multiple interviews with students and educators about comics appeal and educational value. Japanese manga contain complex and sometimes contradictory ideologies of ethnicity, gender, class, and violence. From an ethnic perspective, although students may glean cultural content from manga heroes and their retinues, people of color and non-Japanese Asians are either caricatures or non-existent. Taiwanese consumers seem largely unaware of this. Depictions of social and economic class distinctions are subtle although the dominant ideology of manga creators is middle-class. Manga aficionados are, for the most part, oblivious to class distinctions, but some notice that ancient caste precepts flourish. Although most manga focus on violent combat, their youthful consumers seem unaffected by excessive gore. Bloody battles with enemy legions are seen as a necessary element for the heros journey. From a post-colonialist perspective, mangas exaltation of Japanese cultural archetypes may preempt their readers allegiance to and pride in being Taiwanese. Reading Comic Books Critically combines surveys, textual analyses, and interviews with students and educators about the appeal and potential educational value of manga in order to interrogate how the identities and positionalities of readers (Taiwanese teenagers in this study) intersects with the ways that they are consuming manga. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781433188473

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reading Comic Books Critically (Paperback)
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1433188473
• ISBN 13: 9781433188473
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Education knows no boundaries but 'hot button issues, ' like their students' love for comic books, highlight school, teacher and parent bias. Japanese comic books (manga) play an important role in the lives of most Taiwanese teenagers. This study includes surveys, a textual analysis of five student-selected manga series and multiple interviews with students and educators about comics' appeal and educational value. Japanese manga contain complex and sometimes contradictory ideologies of ethnicity, gender, class, and violence. From an ethnic perspective, although students may glean cultural content from manga heroes and their retinues, people of color and non-Japanese Asians are either caricatures or non-existent. Taiwanese consumers seem largely unaware of this. Depictions of social and economic class distinctions are subtle although the dominant ideology of manga creators is middle-class. Manga aficionados are, for the most part, oblivious to class distinctions, but some notice that ancient caste precepts flourish. Although most manga focus on violent combat, their youthful consumers seem unaffected by excessive gore. Bloody battles with enemy legions are seen as a necessary element for the hero's journey. From a post-colonialist perspective, manga's exaltation of Japanese cultural archetypes may preempt their readers' allegiance to and pride in being Taiwanese.

About the Author

Fang-tzu Hsu received her doctorate in social science and comparative education from the University of California, Los Angeles, while serving the Paulo Freire Institute in various capacities and presenting work at numerous academic conferences. She was an extraordinary scholar, writer and friend.

Peter Lownds is co-founder of the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA, a longtime educator, translator and student of life.