11:25-12:40 | Room 703 (7F)
Sunday Session II
Humanities - Media, Film Studies, Theatre & Communication Session Chair: Jennifer Yoo 45655
11:25-11:50 | Room 703 (7F)
Little Certain Happiness, Fake Death and Community in The Chronology on Death Joy Shihyi Huang, National Tsi Hua University, Taiwan
This paper explores issues of community suggested by death images in Chun-Yao Kao’s play The Chronology on Death and its correlation with issues in contemporary Taiwanese society. Ever since it’s premiere in 2011, this masterpiece on which Kao’s Approaching Theatre laid its foundation has been constantly sought out for productions over the years. Recounting stories of immigration from Mainland China to Malaysia and Taiwan, the story features only two male characters constantly running. As brothers they guard the family’s practiced religion (Taoism) against the Islam Organization in Malaysia by running away with their father’s corpse. As previous generations they are immigrants sailing for months from southern China to Malaysia, encountering other refugees from other parts of south eastern Asia. To survive and immunize themselves from community demands for conformity, individuals need to castrate various parts of their old selves (as in converting from Taoism to Islam), sometimes to a degree that renders the self illegible. This paper argues the immunization mechanism registered in the story corresponds to the states of contemporary Taiwanese society, in which a precariousness, as the emaciating force imposed on an unnamable part (Taiwan / R.O.C. / Chinese Taipei), propels itself to immunize from the (international) community, as seen from upsurge cultural phenomenon registered in the inflected term “little certain happiness” originally coined by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. 44618
11:50-12:15 | Room 703 (7F)
Monstrous Wives and Dead Wet Girls: Examining the Vengeful Ghost in Japanese Theatre and Horror Cinema Jennifer Yoo, University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States
Noh and Kabuki are among the most recognizable non-Western theatre forms worldwide. Japanese horror films are equally well-known, with some credit to works remade for Western audiences. The influence of the supernatural on Japanese theatre, namely Kabuki and Noh, as well as Japanese films, is clear. By tracing the developments of kaidan literature and the tradition of ghost storytelling in Japan through the lens of a few select stories, from legend to Noh and/or Kabuki production to horror film, the scope of this influence can be identified. By examining the prevalence of the onryō, or “vengeful ghost” archetype in these stories, the tendency to portray this archetype as female can be better understood. As in many other cultures, woman is shown to have an affinity with the supernatural, even the monstrous or evil, by the sheer fact of her being female. In Japan this is indicated in Japanese folklore, religious texts, and literature. By analyzing the narrative style, visual representation and iconography, and enactment style of the supernatural element present in Japanese theatre forms Noh and Kabuki compared to Japanese horror films, it becomes apparent that the female onryō character reflects views of the feminine identity in Japanese society, indicating that the prevalence of the female onryō archetype may have developed for sociocultural reasons in Japan.
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