Fluid Orality in the Discourse of Japanese Popular Culture (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series)

This volume invites the reader into the world of pragmatic and discourse studies in Japanese popular culture. Through “character-speak”, the book analyzes quoted speech in light (graphic) novels, the effeminate __onee kotoba__ in talk shows, narrative character in __keetai__ (mobile phone) novels, floating whispers in manga, and fictionalized dialects in television drama series. Explorations into conversational interaction, internal monologue, rhetorical figures, intertextuality, and the semiotic mediation between verbal and visual signs reveal how speakers manipulate language in performing playful “characters” and “characteristics”. Most prominent in the discourse of Japanese popular culture is its “fluid orality”. We find the essential oral nature in and across genres of Japanese popular culture, and observe seamless transitions among styles and speech variations. This fluidity is understood as a feature of polyphonic speech initiated not by the so-called ideal singular speaker, but by a multiple and often shifting interplay of one’s speaking selves performing as various characters. Challenging traditional (Western) linguistic theories founded on the concept of the autonomous speaker, this study ventures into open and embracing pragmatic and discourse studies that inquire into the very nature of our speaking selves. Fluid Orality in the Discourse of Japanese Popular Culture 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 LCC data 5 Table of contents 6 Acknowledgements 12 Chapter 1. Introduction 14 1. Preamble 14 2. Pragmatic studies of a speech genre 19 3. The discourse of Japanese popular culture 22 4. Data 25 4.1 Selection 25 4.2 Transcription and translation 29 Chapter 2. Fluid orality 32 1. The orality-literacy debate and beyond 32 1.1 From orality to literacy 32 1.2 Secondary orality and digital orality 33 1.3 Fluid orality in popular culture discourse 35 2. Fluid orality in the discourse of Japanese popular culture 37 2.1 Conversational narration and the centrality of orality 37 2.2 Fictionalized variation and the fluidity of style shifts 40 2.3 Simulated conversation in narration 42 3. Speaker, speaking selves, and fluid selves 43 3.1 Speaker, speaking selves, and partner 44 3.2 The myth of the ideal and autonomous speaker 44 3.3 Divided selves, “dividuals,” and fluid selves 48 Chapter 3. Character and character-speak 54 1. Character in the West and in Japan 54 1.1 Emergence of the character in the West 54 1.2 The character phenomenon in contemporary Japan 55 2. Character in Japanese popular culture criticism 57 3. Concepts of character and characteristic 59 3.1 Defining character and characteristic 60 3.2 Psychology of Japan’s character culture 64 4. Character-speak: Background 68 4.1 Beyond Bakhtin: Heteroglossia, polyphony, and the character zone in popular culture 69 4.2 Borrowed style as precursor to character-speak 73 5. Character-speak: Manipulating characters and characteristics 76 5.1 Character-speak and expressive meanings 76 5.2 Character-speak and aspects of indexical signs 77 5.3 Manipulating characters and characteristics 80 6. Character-speak in context 83 6.1 Character-speak and performance 83 6.2 Other approaches: Role language and utterance character 86 Chapter 4. Light novels Character-speak and variation in quoted speech 94 1. Introduction 94 1.1 Defining light novels 94 1.2 Crossover and mixed genres 95 2. Background: Quoted speech in novels and light novels 97 2.1 Quoted speech in novels 98 2.2 Simulating orality in quoted speech 99 3. Quoted speech features in light novels 104 3.1 Youth language 104 3.2 Self-performed sound effects 106 4. Creating characters through quoted speech 108 4.1 Character-speak and fictional variations 108 4.2 Character-differentiating quoted speech in Kino no Tabi 112 5. Fluid orality and characteristics 114 5.1 Fluidity of old-man language and archaic styles 114 5.2 Fictionalized dialects and temporary characteristics 115 5.3 Shiftng styles in quoted speech and characteristics 116 6. Tsundere and conversational moves 118 6.1 Tsundere character: Features and language 119 6.2 Tsundere conversational moves in the Suzumya Haruhi series 120 6.3 Particle yo and tsundere attitude 123 7. Reflections 125 Chapter 5. Talk shows Fluid orality in gender-evoking variation 128 1. Introduction 128 1.1 Matsuko Derakkusu and media presence 128 1.2 Masaharu Fukuyama and radio talk shows 130 2. Background: Onee kotoba, gender, and language 132 2.1 Beyond gendered and ideologized language 132 2.2 Onee kotoba as a gender-evoking indexical sign 135 2.3 Consumption of onee culture and onee character-speak in postmodern Japan 138 3. Marketing the onee character: Matsuko Derakkusu 142 3.1 Features of Matsuko’s onee character-speak 142 3.2 Criticizing, ordering, and self-deprecating 144 3.3 Conversation management, audience involvement, and media savvy 145 3.4 Fluidity of gender-evoking character-speak 148 4. Fluid orality in playful voices: Masako, the Housewife 152 4.1 Character presentation in Fukuyama Masaharu no SUZUKI Talking FM 152 4.2 Masako’s character-speak and emotional expressions 154 4.3 Giving advice in Masako’s voice 156 4.4 Grousing and scolding 157 4.5 Fluid transitions: Masako, Masaharu, and Fukuyama 161 5. Reflections 165 Chapter 6. Keetai novels: Narrator’s character-speak in conversational narration 168 1. Introduction 168 1.1 Defining keetai novels 168 1.2 Keetai novel as genre and culture 169 1.3 Keetai novel as self-narrative and its readership 171 2. Background: Novelistic discourse 174 2.1 Approaches to the novel 174 2.2 I-novel and keetai novel 176 3. Language of narration in keetai novels 178 3.1 Overview 178 3.2 Conversational narration 179 3.3 Fragmentation of speech 182 3.4 Appealing to the reader 184 4. Character-speak in self-narrative 186 4.1 Self-awareness and narrator’s character 186 4.2 Narrator as tsukkomi character 188 4.3 Internal conversation: Mediating quoted speech and narration 191 5. Fluid orality through variation and rhetoric 196 5.1 Yankii language and narrator’s character 196 5.2 Fluid style shifts and narrator’s characteristics 198 5.3 Narrator’s performance through irony, punning, and mojiri 200 6. Reflections 204 Chapter 7. Manga: Fluidity of multilayered speech in floating whispers 206 1. Introduction 206 1.1 Japanese manga and girls’ manga 206 1.2 NANA and Yamatonadeshiko Shichihenge 207 2. Background: Internal monologue and visual signs in manga and girls’ manga 208 2.1 Speech balloons and thought bubbles 208 2.2 Internal monologue in girls’ manga 210 2.3 Multimodal approaches to manga 213 3. Fluid orality and polyphony in manga 215 3.1 Internal monologue in Hotto Roodo 215 3.2 Multilayered voices in Ribaazu Ejji 219 4. Floating whispers in NANA and Yamatonadeshiko Shichihenge 221 4.1 Floating whispers: Definition and function 221 4.2 Floating whispers and visual context 222 5. Multilayerd speech in NANA and Yamatonadeshiko Shichihenge 227 5.1 Multilayered internal monologue 227 5.2 Unspoken conversation 231 5.3 Narrative voice and inter-genre expressivity in floating whispers 234 6. Character-speak and fluid orality in floating whispers 236 6.1 Characters of Nana Komatsu and Nana Oosaki 236 6.2 Contrasting Kyoohei with others 239 6.3 Sunako’s character-speak and visual context 243 7. Reflections 248 Chapter 8. Drama: Fluid orality in place-evoking fictionalized variations 250 1. Introduction 250 1.1 Dialect as a place-evoking variation 250 1.2 Hanako to An and character identification 252 1.3 Ama-chan: An overview 257 1.4 Ama-chan: The story 259 2. Background: Fictional dialect and temporary style 261 2.1 Production of the fictional Sodegahama dialect 261 2.2 Fictional variation, character, and characteristic 265 3. Fluid orality in Ama-chan: Use and non-use of the Sodegahama dialect 267 3.1 From dialect to standard speech 267 3.2 Dialect awareness and meta-comment 269 4. Character-speak of major participants in the drama 273 4.1 Aki’s character and her adventure in fictionalized variation 273 4.2 Yui’s character-speak and identity struggle 277 4.3 Haruko’s life journey and adopted variations 278 5. Narrators’ character-speak and polyphony 281 5.1 Natsu and polyphonic narrative style 281 5.2 Narrative voices: Contrasting Haruko and Aki 283 5.3 Addressing audience and the narrator’s character 286 6. Reflections 289 Chapter 9. Reflections and aspirations 292 1. Fluidity of characters and fluidity of speaking selves 292 2. Toward pragmatic and discourse studies of speaking selves 296 Appendix: Presentation of data in Japanese orthography 302 Chapter 2 302 Chapter 3 303 Chapter 4 304 Chapter 5 309 Chapter 6 315 Chapter 7 319 Chapter 8 324 References 332 Data references 346 Light novels 346 Talk shows 346 Keetai novels 347 Manga 347 Television drama 348 Others 348 Author index 350 Subject index 354