Manga at a Crossroads: Classic Manga | March 6, 2015 | Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and MuseumBilly Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

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Manga at a Crossroads: Classic Manga | March 6, 2015

Since the creation of the first manga magazine, Eshinbun Nipponchi, in Japan in 1874, manga evolved and came a long way. After manga became a widely-accepted form of popular culture in Japan, it was exported to countries like the US and has become an international phenomenon. Manga is no longer a mere source for entertainment for the general public, but also it is a serious subject of academic inquiry.  However, while manga became mainstream and global, its sales in the US have recently been in decline. Although some publishers attribute the sales drop to the market stabilization and maturation, it is clear that manga is at a crossroads. Through the two manga symposia, the origin of manga and future directions of this unique art form that started in Japan will be reexamined. The first symposia on March 6, 2015 will focus on classical manga. The second symposia on April 4, 2015 is dedicated to diversification and globalization of manga. The participants will also learn about the OSU’s manga materials accessible to them and find out how they can incorporate manga into research, teaching, and learning.

Symposia 1: Manga at a Crossroads: Classic Manga 
Friday, March 6
12:00 pm – 4:30pm, Thompson Library, Room 165, OSU campus

Schedule: 

12:00pm:  Opening
12:10pm:   Prof. Maureen Donovan (OSU)
“Comics from the Time of ‘Erotic Grotesque Nonsense’: Yomiuri Sunday Manga of 1930-1931”
1:10pm:   Prof. Thomas LaMarre (McGill University) 
“Manga Empire: Companion Species and Shōnen Kurabu”
2:15pm:   Prof. Gennifer Weisenfeld (Duke University) 
“Laughing in the Face of Calamity: Visual Satire after the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923”
3:15pm:   Prof. Natsu Onoda Power (Georgetown University) 
“Questioning the Racial Question: Representations of Human Faces in Classic Manga”
4:30pm:  Reception

The sponsors for the event are East Asian Studies Center, Institute for Japanese Studies, The Ohio State University Libraries, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Department of History of Art, Department of Arts Administration, Education & Policy, Division of Arts and Humanities, Association for Asian Studies, Japan Foundation New York, and US Department of Education (Title VI).