Bibliography

Jansen, Marius B. and Edwin O. Reishauer.  The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity (Enlarged Edition).  Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.

	While some of the positions taken by the authors in this book are debatable, overall it gives an intelligible picture of Japanese society and deep structures for the Western reader.  It should be noted that all books about all cultures are subject to some sort of bias, and anthropology in general suffers from the inevitable necessity of generalizing about “prevailing cultural attitudes,” but all that aside, this is a solid reference if taken with a grain of common sense and a little self-education.  Understanding how history and tradition shape contemporary attitudes toward women, sex and entertainment all play into the decidedly cultural medium of doujinshi, though the amateur comics themselves are not mentioned in the text.

Kinsella, Sharon.  Adult Manga: Culture and Power In Contemporary Japan.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

	The fruit of working in the Japanese publishing industry for several months on a research grant, Kinsella documents the growth of the manga corporate structure and analyzes several fascinating trends related to manga obsession and consumerism.  There seems to be some debate about whether she is truly correct in some of her assertions (largely concerning power relations between manga artists, assistants and editors), but her chapter on women’s erotic manga and comments about doujinshi appear accurate.  Kinsella is a primary source for much of the theory surrounding the enjoyment of yaoi.
	(NOTE: I do not have a copy of this book yet.  I read it through while I was in Japan, but it has been quite a few months since then, so this review is based on what I remember.  I will get a copy of my own as soon as it is available and update this entry.) 

Leupp, Gary P.  Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan.  Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.

	This book examines the way male-male homosexuality was viewed, socially structured, and practiced in pre-Meiji Japan.  Though focused on Tokugawa-era attitudes and developments such as the commercialization of homosexual sex in the pleasure quarters, it also discusses the initial development of “the way of boys” and the traditions of the samurai and Buddhist priesthood.  A highly readable and broadly informative volume that draws on primary source material of the period, providing a historical context for contemporary representations of male-male love in Japan.

Makoto, Furukawa.  “The Changing Nature of Sexuality: The Three Codes Framing Homosexuality in Modern Japan.”  Translated by Angus Lockyer.  U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, no. 17.  December 1994.

	An examination of the three ways that homosexuality has historically been treated in Japan: as an accepted, age-based romantic institution that exemplified samurai values; as a fascination of the ‘floating world,’ embodied by effeminate, cross-dressing boy prostitutes; and as a disease or disorder for the medical establishment to ‘cure.’  All three of these perspectives had a bearing on the way that homosexuality was practiced and socially constructed during the Meiji Era, a period that still has an intellectual hold on the people of Japan today.

McHarry, Mark.  “Yaoi: Redrawing Male Love.”  The Guide.  November, 2003.  Also available online, http://www.guidemag.com/temp/yaoi/a/mcharry_yaoi.html

	A very long, well researched and annotated article about the trends, tropes, theories and themes surrounding American yaoi fanfiction, fan-art, and slash.  Traces the origins of the Japanese fascination with male homosexuality, the emergence of slash and yaoi fandom in English on the Internet, and attempts to answer the eternal question “why yaoi” with the help of interviewed fanfiction writers and their work.

McLelland, Mark J.  Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan: Cultural Myths and Social Realities.  Oxon, England: Curzon Press, 2000.

	A substantial contribution to the area of Asian Queer Studies, in this book McLelland draws an insightful line between popular conceptions of Japanese homosexuality and the actual experience of Japanese homosexuals.  His major argument is that due to widely-circulated stereotypes in various Japanese media (everything from novels to manga to television shows), the majority of Japanese people have ideas about and concepts of gays and lesbians that intersect with reality hardly at all.  He examines myths such as the tendency to equate being gay with being transsexual, the idea that homosexual men are the ideal best friends for women, and devotes a chapter to discussing the appeal of yaoi as a fantasy genre for heterosexual females.  Through interviews and fieldwork he then outlines the real experience of gays in Japan and gives a detailed look at their construction of their subculture.

Schodt, Frederik L.  Manga!  Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics.  New York: Kodansha International, 1986.

	A classic reference for virtually anything having to do with the rise of the Japanese comic industry, Manga!  Manga! covers the history of manga in general, and also the development of many prominent comic genres including shojo, shonen (“boys’ comics”), erotica, and sports.  It uses examples from real manga to illustrate points about visual metaphor, graphic content and the typical plot devices used in each kind of comic.  This book has very little to say about yaoi and nothing at all about doujinshi, but the characteristics and artistic techniques described in the section on shojo manga have some direct parallels to stylistic conventions also found in yaoi doujinshi. 

Schodt, Frederik L.  Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga.  Berkley: Stone Bridge Press, 1996.

	Almost a mandatory companion volume to Manga! Manga!, Dreamland Japan looks at more modern comic publications, and discusses developments in both the comic industry, attitudes toward manga, and the link between manga and anime.  Going a bit more in-depth than its predecessor, this volume contains several chapters about specific, exemplary artists, and the social implications of their work.  There is a short chapter on doujinshi and convention culture, though it is basically an overview and does not hone in on yaoi doujinshi very specifically.

Thorn, Matthew.  “Girls and Women Getting Out of Hand: The Pleasure and Politics of Japan’s Amateur Comics Community.”  Fanning The Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan. William W. Kelly, ed.  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004.  pg. 169-187.

	Matthew Thorn, cultural anthropologist and an expert on shojo manga (“girls’ comics”) currently teaching at Kyoto Seika University, has written one of the very few works in English commenting directly on the yaoi doujinshi subculture in Japan.  During some fieldwork on mainstream manga featuring yaoi themes, he attended a doujinshi convention his informants directed him to, which eventually lead to his researching and writing this article.  Though relatively short, it is an immensely informative overview of the field, covering the convention-based mechanics of making and marketing doujinshi, motivations of yaoi artists and consumers, the American “slash” mirror culture, theories on the genre, and ideas about Japanese social structure that influence doujinshi creation.

Valenti, Kristy L.  “‘Stop, My Butt Hurts!’: The Yaoi Invasion.”  The Comics Journal, #269.  13 July 2005: 121-125.  Also available online, http://www.tcj.com/269/e_yaoi.html

	Drawing on American yaoi fan sources such as Aestheticism.com, Wikipedia.com and the organizers of San Francisco’s YaoiCon, as well as McLelland’s work, Valenti summarizes some of the history of yaoi mainstream manga in America, and speculates on the reasons for and the direction of its rapidly-expanding popularity.  A good, basic introduction into yaoi-associated concepts among the American fan community, although written about yaoi manga and not yaoi doujinshi (which actually seem to be rather disparagingly lumped in with “the most sexually explicit [male on male] material for women”).