Schoolgirls and Bourgeois Daughters
Schoolgirls and Bourgeois Daughters
Moving from domestic to public female character tropes, this chapter investigates trends in the representation of young women on-screen. Youthful female representation is contextualized in the ‘New Life’ discourses of the early post-war era. This chapter engages with extant scholarship on the shōjo, making a case for the young female characters of the early post-war as successors to the earlier shōjo characterizations. The case of the Hiroshima Maidens and early atomic discourse positions the shōjo as victim, while depictions of youthful female sexuality lend the trope connotations of hope and post-war rebirth. Case studies include Spring Awakens (Haru no mezame, Naruse Mikio, 1947) and Children of the Bomb (Genbaku no ko, Shindō Kaneto, 1952).
Keywords: Schoolgirl, daughter, shōjo, victim, nuclear, hope
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