Rebecca Copeland & Laura Miller 
Diva Nation 
Female Icons from Japanese Cultural History

Diva Nation explores the constructed nature of female iconicity in Japan. From ancient goddesses and queens to modern singers and writers, this edited volume critically reconsiders the female icon, tracing how she has been offered up for emulation, debate or censure. The research in this book culminates from curiosity over the insistent presence of Japanese female figures who have refused to sit quietly on the sidelines of history. The contributors move beyond archival portraits to consider historically and culturally informed diva imagery and diva lore. The diva is ripe for expansion, fantasy, eroticization, and playful reinvention, while simultaneously presenting a challenge to patriarchal culture.
Diva Nation asks how the diva disrupts or bolsters ideas about nationhood, morality, and aesthetics. 

Tabella dei contenuti

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Preface: Transnational and Time-Travelling Divas xi

Laura Hein


Diva Seductions: An Introduction to Diva Nation 1

Laura Miller and Rebecca Copeland

1. Kirino Natsuo Meets Izanami: Angry Divas Talking Back 13

Rebecca Copeland

2. Ame no Uzume Crosses Boundaries 34

Tomoko Aoyama

3. Searching for Charisma Queen Himiko 51

Laura Miller

4. Izumo no Okuni Queers the Stage 77

Barbara Hartley

5. From Child Star to Diva: Misora Hibari as Postwar Japan 95

Christine R. Yano

6. Yoko Ono: A Transgressive Diva 115

Carolyn S. Stevens

7. Transbeauty IKKO: A Diva’s Guide to Glamour, Virtue, and Healing 133

Jan Bardsley

8. Seizing the Spotlight, Staging the Self: Uchida Shungiku 151

Amanda C. Seaman

9. The Unmaking of a Diva: Kanehara Hitomi’s Comfortable Anonymity 168

David Holloway

10. Ice Princess: Asada Mao the Demure Diva 185

Masafumi Monden

Afterword:
Diva tte nan desu ka? (What Is a Diva?) 203

Rokudenashiko (
Translated by Kazue Harada)


Bibliography 207

Contributors 229

Index 233

Circa l’autore

Laura Miller is the Ei’ichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, where she teaches courses and does research on Japan.  Rebecca Copeland is Professor of Japanese Literature at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where her research and teaching focus on modern women writers, mystery fiction, gender, and translation studies.