Donnerstag, 06. November 2014, 18:30 - 20:00 iCal

The rush for ‘happiness’

Women and magazine advertising in post-war Japan

Dr. Olga Khomenko (National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Ukraine)

Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften - Japanologie, Seminarraum JAP 1
UniversitätsCampus Hof 2, Eingang 2.4., Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien

Vortrag

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This presentation reflects on the formation of Japanese women’s identity in the larger context of “longing for happiness” by means of consumption in postwar Japan. The analysis is based on print advertisement for home appliances, cosmetics, cars and alcoholic beverages that appeared in the two major women’s magazines Fujin K?ron and Josei Jishin between 1949 and 1979. Reflecting on the changing representation of women, femininity and gender roles in the context of consumer society, I tackle the crucial question if women, who were and are increasingly targeted by mass advertising, are to be considered as passive objects that acquire a sense of self in consumer behavior? Or are they better seen as autonomous subjects that create a new identity by actively interacting with the idealized images in the advertisements? As the projected images hardly correlated with the material and social realities of postwar Japan, this presentation also asks why and how these commodities were constructed as necessary for the pursuit of “happiness”.

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Veranstalter

Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften/Japanologie und AAJ (Akademischer Arbeitskreis Japan)

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Kontakt

Mag. Angela Kramer
Universität Wien
Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften - Japanologie
4277-43801
angela.kramer@univie.ac.at

Erstellt am Freitag, 31. Oktober 2014, 10:34
Letzte Änderung am Montag, 03. November 2014, 07:00