Mangaddicts: French Teenagers and Manga Reading

Christine Détrez is a Professor of Sociology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (Lyon University, France), and the director of the Centre Max Weber. She is a specialist in the sociology of culture, gender and emotions. She received a PhD in sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris) for a thesis on the reading practices of teenagers in high schools. She is also a novelist.Olivier Vanhée received a PhD in sociology and anthropology from the Université Lumière Lyon 2, for a thesis on manga reception in France: the genesis of manga publishing in France, the cultural socialization of adult readers (born from the 1960s to the 1980s), the variations of their cultural tastes and ways of reading. He teaches sociology and educational sciences at the University of Picardie-Jules Verne (Amiens, France).

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of Tables and GraphsIntroduction1 What Is Manga?1 “One Thousand Years of Manga” or “Sixty Years of Manga”? Definitions and Search for Origins2 Production Process and Manga Specificities2.1 The Effect of the Production Process2.2 The Categorization of Readers2.2.1 Targeting Readers2.2.2 Age and Gender Group: Segmentation and Hybridization2.3 The Rise of the Manga Cultural Industry in Japan2.4 Manga Spread and Reception in France: From Media Panic to Recognition3 Mapping the French Manga Market3.1 Field Structuring3.1.1 Today’s Publishers3.2 Outcome2 A Reading Practice Embedded in the Youth Culture1 A Reading Embedded in Teenagers’ Schedules1.1 Reading Easy and Practical1.2 Reading in Various Contexts1.3 Reading and Rereading2 A Reading Practice Embedded in the “Youth Culture” Constellation2.1 Cartoons2.2 The Digital Era2.3 Music2.4 The Fantastic and the Sentimental2.5 Reading and the Book3 Friendship Networks3.1 Exchange Networks3.2 Discussing Manga3.3 A Way of Connecting with Others4 Manga-Related Hobbies4.1 Drawing: A Mixed-Gender Activity4.2 Girls: Cosplay and Fanfiction4.2.1 Cosplays4.2.2 Fanfictions4.3 Anime Music Videos and Role Playing Games (amv and rpg)4.4 Blogs5 Readers’ Careers5.1 Discovering Manga5.2 High School as a Confirmation5.3 Turning Points and Career Endings3 Reading Manga1 Entertainment1.1 Enjoyment1.2 Escapism1.3 Laughing: A Serious Matter1.3.1 Burlesque and Situational Comedy: A Comic Pattern of “Degradation”1.3.2 Nonsense and Absurd1.3.3 Comedies in a School Setting: Satire and the Subversion of Authority1.3.4 Humor in Coming-of-Age Comedies: Comical Variations on Romantic and Sexual Relationships1.3.5 Plays on Words1.4 … and Crying2 Relatability2.1 The Various Facets of Identification: Admiring2.2 Recognizing Oneself2.3 Ethical Receptions2.4 Seeking Comfort3 Right Age, Right Gender, Right Manners3.1 The Role of Age and Generations3.2 Age Matters4 Getting One’s Gender Straight: Boys, Fist Fights and Little Nana Girls4.1 Boys and “Beating”4.2 Diverse Models of Masculinity: Intelligence, Psychology, and Emotions4.3 The Little Nana Girls5 Growing Up with Manga: Practical Uses5.1 Seeds of Knowledge5.2 Seeds of Life4 In Search of Lost Legitimacy1 Conflicted Dispositions1.1 Parents, Teachers and Friends1.2 Internalization2 Fans in Their Own Words: Self-Portraits2.1 Not Being a Fan2.2 Being a Fan3 “Scholarly” Readings3.1 Reading as a Meticulous Task3.2 Reading SkillsConclusionAppendix 1 Glossary: The Manga and Japanese Animation UniverseAppendix 2 The Manga Readers Interviewed and Their CharacteristicsAppendix 3 Summaries of Some Manga Titles by Those Who Read ThemAppendix 4 Graphs and Tables about Manga Publishing in FranceBibliographyIndex