Description
Book SynopsisThese essays consider the Godzilla films and how they shaped and influenced postwar Japanese culture, as well as the globalization of Japanese pop culture icons. There are contributions from Film Studies, Anthropology, History, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies and from Susan Napier, Anne Allison, Christine Yano and others.
Trade Review"At last, a critical analysis of Godzilla movies that breathes enough fire to be worthy of the Big G himself. This is a book for anyone interested in Japanese culture - scholars and fans alike will be delighted with these smart, provocative essays that explore what Japan's most popular monster has meant at home and abroad." - Annalee Newitz, author of Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture"These thirteen essays contextualize Gojira in terms of war memory and scientific modernity, Japanese folklore and worldwide fandom, and 'green' and 'pink' globalization. Well-researched and illuminating, this book challenges students and teachers alike to confront all-too-common stereotypes about cheesy cultural products from Japan. In Godzilla's Footsteps is the most ambitious attempt to date to make sense of postwar Japan's popular culture historically, and to examine Japanese history through pop culture icons." - Franziska Seraphim, Assistant Professor of Japanese History, Boston College, author of War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945-2006 (2006) "In Godzilla's Footsteps is a fascinating look back at the early seeds of today's blossoming Japanese pop culture abroad." - Greenman Review
Table of ContentsIntroduction; W.M.Tsutsui When Godzilla Speaks; S.Napier Mobilizing Gojira: Mourning Modernity as Monstrosity; M.Anderson Gojira as Japan's First Postwar Media Event; B.Kushner Lost in Translation and Morphed in Transit: Godzilla in Cold War America; S.Guthrie-Shimizu Wrestling with Godzilla: Intertextuality, Childish Spectatorship, and the National Body; A.Gerow Mothra's Gigantic Egg: Consuming the South Pacific in 1960s Japan; Yoshikuni Hybridity and Negotiated Identity in Japanese Popular Culture; J.Boss Teaching Godzilla: Classroom Encounters with a Cultural Icon; J.Bernardi "Our First Kiss Had a Radioactive Taste": Ohashi Yasuhiko's Gojira in Japan and Canada; K.J.Wetmore Jr. Godzilla Meets Super-Kyogen, or How a Dinosaur Saved the World; E.Rath Monstering the Japanese Cute: Pink Globalization and Its Critics Abroad; C.Yano Kikaida for Life: Cult Fandom in a Japanese Live-Action TV Show in Hawai'i; H.Katsuno Apocalypsis in Fantasy and Reality: Japanese Pop Culture in Contemporary Russia; Y.Mikhailova Epilogue: He Did the Stomp, He Did the Monster Stomp; T.C.Bestor
