{"id":26805,"date":"2012-12-05T22:23:01","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T22:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=26805"},"modified":"2012-12-05T22:23:01","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T22:23:01","slug":"the-modern-girl-and-the-vamp-hollywood-film-in-tanizaki-junichiros-early-novels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=26805","title":{"rendered":"The Modern Girl and the Vamp: Hollywood Film in Tanizaki Jun’ichir\u00f4’s Early Novels"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Modern Girl and the Vamp: Hollywood Film in Tanizaki Jun’ichir\u00f4’s Early Novels<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

positions: asia critique<\/a>
\nVolume 20, Number 4<\/a> (2012)
\npages 1067-1093
\nDOI: 10.1215\/10679847-1717672<\/a><\/p>\n

Deborah Shamoon<\/a><\/strong>, Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies
\nNational University of Singapore<\/em><\/p>\n

Chijin no ai<\/em> (Naomi<\/a><\/em>, 1924) and Nikukai<\/em> (A Lump of Flesh<\/em>, 1923), by Tanizaki Jun’ichir\u00f4<\/a>, were seminal texts in forming the image of the \u201cmodern girl\u201d in Japan in the 1920s. In both novels, Hollywood<\/a> actresses famous for playing vamp<\/a> roles are central to the construction of the modern girl character. The title Chijin no ai<\/em> references the Japanese title of the US film A Fool There Was<\/a><\/em> (1915), starring Theda Bara<\/a> as the prototypical vamp. In a US context, the vamp character embodies not only the threat of the sexual woman but also anxieties surrounding racial mixing. In importing the vamp narrative to a Japanese context, Tanizaki reproduces this racial tension. This article examines the actresses, including Mary Pickford<\/a>, Gloria Swanson<\/a>, Bebe Daniels<\/a>, and others, that Tanizaki uses as models for the modern girl in these two novels. The existing narrative of the Hollywood vamp informs Tanizaki’s description of the modern girl, even as that narrative is necessarily transformed in a Japanese context. Furthermore, Tanizaki in both novels also employs a narrative voice that evokes the filmic mode of seeing, including the close-up and montage. This article examines Chijin no ai<\/em> and Nikukai<\/em> as intersections of filmic and novelistic modes of narrative. Tanizaki’s fascination with the new technology of cinema inspired him to experiment with new modes of narrative and intertextuality in prose fiction. However, his use of the cinematic mode of narrative, as well as the vamp character, also results in the highlighting of white\/nonwhite racial tension and an attraction\/repulsion toward racial impurity.<\/p>\n

Read or purchase the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Modern Girl and the Vamp: Hollywood Film in Tanizaki Jun’ichir\u00f4’s Early Novels positions: asia critique Volume 20, Number 4 (2012) pages 1067-1093 DOI: 10.1215\/10679847-1717672 Deborah Shamoon, Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies National University of Singapore Chijin no ai (Naomi, 1924) and Nikukai (A Lump of Flesh, 1923), by Tanizaki Jun’ichir\u00f4, were seminal texts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,1196,8],"tags":[12998,12992,12997,1793,12996,12995,12994,12993,12999],"class_list":["post-26805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","tag-bebe-daniels","tag-deborah-shamoon","tag-gloria-swanson","tag-japan","tag-mary-pickford","tag-positions","tag-positions-asia-critique","tag-tanizaki-junichiro","tag-theda-bara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}