Abstract:
This thesis examines the hegemonic negotiation occurred in the western art
and cultures influenced muscular manga of the 1980s. The research aims to explore
an ability of those manga in reflecting the Japanese sociocultural context, in
associated with its historical events and western relations. The study was carried out
by analyzing 3 sample mangas; Fist of The North Star (1983), JoJos Bizarre Adventure
(1987) and Berserk (1989) via postcolonial concepts of Homi K. Bhabhas hybridity,
ambivalence, and mimicry.
The result reveals that the hegemonic negotiation of hybridizing and
mimicking western art and cultures in the creative process of the mangas, resulted in
a newly constructed representations of both Japan and the West. While robot manga
reflects the physical and technological fragility of post-World War II Japan, the
muscular manga that imitates western figures contrarily represents the Japanese urge
to embrace the human body capabilities. Visibly, this shift of representation
negotiated with the quasi-colonial power the West has been wielding over Japan
since the war. The study also suggests that the repeated process of combining and
imitating western art and cultures, subtly interfere the original implications of those
western identities. This manifestation of the authority to define and evaluate the
West, through the creative process of so mangas, is likewise a resistance toward the
West. The creative process of the mangas is therefore represents the new and mighty
Japan against the image of the defeated assigned by the West. And at the same time,
provides Japan a state of domination and utilization over western identities. All
within the consistently cohered context of a postcolonial relationship.