James Welker
Biographic Data
| ID | 3693191 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Welker |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Welker |
| SIGNATURE | WELKER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Kanagawa University |
| ORCID | 0009-0003-4554-6226 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Queer Transfigurations
Introduction
In Memoriam
Queering Fandoms from the Periphery? A Conversation between Queer Fan Event Organizers in Mexico and the Philippines
Queering Fandoms from the Periphery?A Conversation between Queer Fan Event Organizers in Mexico and the Philippines Fen Garza (bio), Kristene Michelle Santos (bio), and James Welker (bio) James Welker: To get things started, please give us a brief overview of your events and your roles in them. Kristene Michelle Santos: I'm one of the founding organizers of Lights Out, in 2004—called BLush since 2012. Lights Out was the first BL convention not ju…
Introduction
IntroductionQueer(ing) Japanese Popular Culture James Welker The queer potential of Japanese popular media in global circulation—particularly manga, anime, and video games, as well as related fan practices—is no secret. The appeal of gender-bending narratives and of often explicit depictions of nonnormative romance and sexuality across these media has led to the establishment of focused fandoms and fan spaces around the world, including virtual s…
Rethinking Japanese Feminisms
From Women’s Liberation to Lesbian Feminism in Japan
Toward a history of ‘lesbian history’ in Japan
In this essay, I examine the mobilisation of lesbian history in the construction and support of the idea of a Japanese lesbian community. I begin in postwar Japan, when we can find evidence for a sense of community among women who link their identities to their desire for other women, and when we see the first generation of women who identify as and generate a discourse about being ‘lesbian’ (resubian or rezubian). Specifically, I look at several…
Rethinking Japanese Feminisms
Rethinking Japanese Feminisms offers a broad overview of the great diversity of feminist thought and practice in Japan from the early twentieth century to the present. Drawing on methodologies and approaches from anthropology, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, and sociology, each chapter presents the results of research based on some combination of original archival research, careful textual analy…
Bright Lights, Big Dreams
A review of Bobby Benedicto, Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene (University of Minnesota Press, 2014
A Brief History of ShŌnen’ai, Yaoi, and Boys Love
An Introduction to “Boys Love” in Japan
This introductory chapter briefly examines Boys Love (BL)—a Japanese genre of fictional media focusing on romantic or sexual relationships between male characters, typically aimed at a female audience and usually created by female authors. This tradition fully developed into a self-conscious literary tradition devoted to extolling the charm of youthful male beauty during the Edo period (1603–1868). Confucianism saw women as inferior and not as su…
Boys Love Manga and Beyond
Boys Love (or simply BL) has emerged as a mainstream genre in manga, anime, and games for girls and young women. This genre was first developed in Japan in the early 1970s by a group of female artists. By the late 1970s, many amateur women fans were getting involved and creating and self-publishing homoerotic parodies of established male manga characters and popular media figures. The popularity of these encouraged a surge in the number of commer…
Re)Positioning (Asian) Queer Studies
This essay examines four books recently published as part of the Queer Asia series, launched by Hong Kong University Press in 2008. These multidisciplinary monographs and edited collections offer a glimpse of the increasing diversity of scholarship in Asian queer studies, and they attest to the significance of queer knowledge production within and about a loosely defined Asia. In addition, these works help trouble the centrality of "Western" cult…
Homosexuality and Manliness in Postwar Japan
JONATHAN D. MACKINTOSH. London and New York: Routledge, 2010. x, 261 pp. US$138.00, hardcover; US$44.95, paper. On one level, Jonathan D. Mackintosh’s Homosexuality and Manliness in Postwar Japan i
Flower Tribes and Female Desire
Flower Tribes and Female Desire:Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga James Welker (bio) Shōnen'ai (boys' love) manga is not about homosexuality. Or at least, many critics, scholars, and artists of shōjo (girls') manga, of which shōnen'ai is a subgenre, have long denied a connection between "real homosexuality" and these narratives, which depict beautiful adolescent males in romantic and/ or sexual relationshi…
Telling Her Story
This article explores queer Japanese women's narratives of their own histories and the history of the "Japanese lesbian community," which has been constructed as a space outside the heterosexual mainstream, a space where queer women can find at least temporary refuge. This article specifically looks at the long history of the lesbian bar scene as well as more recent history of lesbian dance parties; the early role of lesbian feminism and activism…
Queer Voices from Japan
Queer Voices from Japan examines the wide range of queer voices in Japan, and the longevity that these minority communities have enjoyed in society. Mark McLelland, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker bring together historical and contemporary narratives that contribute to the study of sexual identities in Japan. These essays trace the evolution of queer voices in Japan with analyses of the presence of homosexuality in the Japanese Imperial Army…
Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent
Re)Positioning (Asian) Queer Studies
This essay examines four books recently published as part of the Queer Asia series, launched by Hong Kong University Press in 2008. These multidisciplinary monographs and edited collections offer a glimpse of the increasing diversity of scholarship in Asian queer studies, and they attest to the significance of queer knowledge production within and about a loosely defined Asia. In addition, these works help trouble the centrality of "Western" cult…
Telling Her Story
This article explores queer Japanese women's narratives of their own histories and the history of the "Japanese lesbian community," which has been constructed as a space outside the heterosexual mainstream, a space where queer women can find at least temporary refuge. This article specifically looks at the long history of the lesbian bar scene as well as more recent history of lesbian dance parties; the early role of lesbian feminism and activism…
Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent
Queer Voices from Japan
Queer Voices from Japan examines the wide range of queer voices in Japan, and the longevity that these minority communities have enjoyed in society. Mark McLelland, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker bring together historical and contemporary narratives that contribute to the study of sexual identities in Japan. These essays trace the evolution of queer voices in Japan with analyses of the presence of homosexuality in the Japanese Imperial Army…
Telling Her Story
This article explores queer Japanese women's narratives of their own histories and the history of the "Japanese lesbian community," which has been constructed as a space outside the heterosexual mainstream, a space where queer women can find at least temporary refuge. This article specifically looks at the long history of the lesbian bar scene as well as more recent history of lesbian dance parties; the early role of lesbian feminism and activism…
Flower Tribes and Female Desire
Flower Tribes and Female Desire:Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga James Welker (bio) Shōnen'ai (boys' love) manga is not about homosexuality. Or at least, many critics, scholars, and artists of shōjo (girls') manga, of which shōnen'ai is a subgenre, have long denied a connection between "real homosexuality" and these narratives, which depict beautiful adolescent males in romantic and/ or sexual relationshi…
Homosexuality and Manliness in Postwar Japan
JONATHAN D. MACKINTOSH. London and New York: Routledge, 2010. x, 261 pp. US$138.00, hardcover; US$44.95, paper. On one level, Jonathan D. Mackintosh’s Homosexuality and Manliness in Postwar Japan i
Re)Positioning (Asian) Queer Studies
This essay examines four books recently published as part of the Queer Asia series, launched by Hong Kong University Press in 2008. These multidisciplinary monographs and edited collections offer a glimpse of the increasing diversity of scholarship in Asian queer studies, and they attest to the significance of queer knowledge production within and about a loosely defined Asia. In addition, these works help trouble the centrality of "Western" cult…
A Brief History of ShŌnen’ai, Yaoi, and Boys Love
An Introduction to “Boys Love” in Japan
This introductory chapter briefly examines Boys Love (BL)—a Japanese genre of fictional media focusing on romantic or sexual relationships between male characters, typically aimed at a female audience and usually created by female authors. This tradition fully developed into a self-conscious literary tradition devoted to extolling the charm of youthful male beauty during the Edo period (1603–1868). Confucianism saw women as inferior and not as su…
Boys Love Manga and Beyond
Boys Love (or simply BL) has emerged as a mainstream genre in manga, anime, and games for girls and young women. This genre was first developed in Japan in the early 1970s by a group of female artists. By the late 1970s, many amateur women fans were getting involved and creating and self-publishing homoerotic parodies of established male manga characters and popular media figures. The popularity of these encouraged a surge in the number of commer…
Bright Lights, Big Dreams
A review of Bobby Benedicto, Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene (University of Minnesota Press, 2014
Rethinking Japanese Feminisms
From Women’s Liberation to Lesbian Feminism in Japan
Toward a history of ‘lesbian history’ in Japan
In this essay, I examine the mobilisation of lesbian history in the construction and support of the idea of a Japanese lesbian community. I begin in postwar Japan, when we can find evidence for a sense of community among women who link their identities to their desire for other women, and when we see the first generation of women who identify as and generate a discourse about being ‘lesbian’ (resubian or rezubian). Specifically, I look at several…
Rethinking Japanese Feminisms
Rethinking Japanese Feminisms offers a broad overview of the great diversity of feminist thought and practice in Japan from the early twentieth century to the present. Drawing on methodologies and approaches from anthropology, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, and sociology, each chapter presents the results of research based on some combination of original archival research, careful textual analy…
Queering Fandoms from the Periphery? A Conversation between Queer Fan Event Organizers in Mexico and the Philippines
Queering Fandoms from the Periphery?A Conversation between Queer Fan Event Organizers in Mexico and the Philippines Fen Garza (bio), Kristene Michelle Santos (bio), and James Welker (bio) James Welker: To get things started, please give us a brief overview of your events and your roles in them. Kristene Michelle Santos: I'm one of the founding organizers of Lights Out, in 2004—called BLush since 2012. Lights Out was the first BL convention not ju…
Introduction
IntroductionQueer(ing) Japanese Popular Culture James Welker The queer potential of Japanese popular media in global circulation—particularly manga, anime, and video games, as well as related fan practices—is no secret. The appeal of gender-bending narratives and of often explicit depictions of nonnormative romance and sexuality across these media has led to the establishment of focused fandoms and fan spaces around the world, including virtual s…
In Memoriam
Queer Transfigurations
Introduction
Sociology (15 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Japanese History and Culture (13 works) · Art (11 works) · History (9 works) · Asian Culture and Media Studies (8 works) · Literature (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · Media studies (6 works)