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Chapter 4 - Manga

An Affective Form of Comics

from Part I - Forms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2023

By
Jaqueline Berndt
Edited by
Maaheen Ahmed
Maaheen Ahmed
Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent, Belgium
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Summary

Taking the narrow notion of manga outside of Japan as its starting point, this chapter refrains from introducing the diversity of comics in Japan in support of a transculturally open approach. From a form-conscious perspective, it conceptualizes manga as a highly affective type of comics that share characteristics with non-Japanese comics far beyond the “manga” label. Following a brief historical survey of what “manga” has meant in English since the 1980s, the device of affective eyes takes center stage. Graphic narratives by Osamu Tezuka, Keiji Nakazawa, Keiko Takemiya, and Jirō Taniguchi serve as examples for how extreme close-ups of eyes have operated across periods and genres, namely, not only as representations of interiority or ethnicity, but also as material signposts and guides of visual perception: eyes draw attention, get readers involved prior to critical interpretation, establish intimacy with characters, provide a node for a page’s visual fragments, help to obscure the divide between inside and outside, subject and object, self and other. Moving gingerly into an ocular history of manga as an affective form of comics, the chapter seeks to turn away from essentialist, as well as culturalist, definitions of what manga is in favor of how it operates.

Keywords

graphic narrativesgazeaffectreader involvementmaterialityJapan
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Comics , pp. 82 - 101
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Manga
  • Edited by Maaheen Ahmed, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Comics
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.007
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Manga
  • Edited by Maaheen Ahmed, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Comics
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Manga
  • Edited by Maaheen Ahmed, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Comics
  • Online publication: 17 August 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009255653.007
Available formats
×