The sense of No Ending: The Post/Modern Apocalypse in Shojo Manga of the 1990s.

Abstract

Shojo manga is often perceived by fans, critics and scholars in and outside Japan as escapist and `narcissistic? fantasy fiction which is indifferent to the political, economic and social conditions that constitute the `political unconscious? of contemporary Japanese society. This thesis seeks to challenge this stereotype of shojo manga. In this thesis, I read three apocalyptic shojo manga narratives produced in the 1990s (_Sailor Moon_, _X_, and _Angel Sanctuary_) as cultural texts which employ the fantasy form to `apocalyptically? expose and engage with the `political unconscious? of Japanese society during the `lost decade? of the 1990s. I discuss how the texts articulate and perpetuate the anxieties, desires and ideologies which emerged in response to the `postmodernisation? of Japan and the world at the end of the twentieth century. However, I also acknowledge that these texts have a `semi-autonomy? which enables them to demystify, deconstruct and subvert oppressive ideological and material conditions present in the `political unconscious,? and to thereby motivate positive social change. As such, in this thesis I examine how the texts perform these `modern? critical and transformative roles in a `postmodern? world through paradoxically mobilising the `apocalyptic tone,? or enunciative modality, opened up by `postmodernisation.?