British Children's Literature in Japanese Culture: Wonderlands and Looking-Glasses

Whether watching Studio Ghibli adaptations of British children's books, visiting Harry Potter sites in Britain or eating at Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurants in Tokyo, the Japanese have a close and multifaceted relationship with British children's literature. In this, the first comprehensive study to explore this engagement, Catherine Butler considers its many manifestations in print, on the screen, in tourist locations and throughout Japanese popular culture. Taking stock of the influence of literary works such as Gulliver's Travels, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Tom's Midnight Garden, and the Harry Potter series, this lively account draws on literary criticism, translation, film and tourist studies to explore how British children's books have been selected, translated, understood, adapted and reworked into Japanese commercial, touristic and imaginative culture. Using theoretically informed case studies this book will consider both individual texts and their wider cultural contexts, translations and adaptations (such as the numerous adaptations of British children's books by Studio Ghibli and others), the dissemination of distinctive tropes such as magical schools into Japanese children's literature and popular culture, and the ways in which British children's books and their settings have become part of way that Japanese people understand Britain itself

Author: Catherine Butler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 10/19/2023
Pages: 226
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d
ISBN13: 9781350195479
ISBN10: 1350195472
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Children's & Young Adult Literature
- Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
- Performing Arts | Film | History & Criticism

About the Author
Catherine Butler is Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University. Her academic books include Four British Fantasists (2006), Reading History in Children's Books (2012) and Literary Studies Deconstructed (2018). She has also edited numerous academic collections, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Children's Literature in Education.