Cleopatra in Japanese Manga and Animation: Reimagining Ancient Egypt and Rome in the Shōwa Era
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Room
- Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT)
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
Beyond their significance within Japanese pop culture, historically themed manga and anime can offer readers new perspectives for reimagining ancient Mediterranean culture. This lecture will explore how 1970s manga and animation portrayed Cleopatra against the backdrop of the conflict between ancient Egypt and Rome.
My analysis will focus especially on the works of Satonaka Machiko and Tezuka Osamu, produced during a decade often regarded as the golden age of shōjo manga and a time when experimentation in animation reached new heights. I will examine how these artists engage with the long-standing tradition of depicting Cleopatra through an Orientalist lens, reinterpret the conflict between Rome and Egypt from a modern perspective, and address issues of female agency in their portrayals.
Header image: 'Akihabara, Taito City, Tokyo, Japan' by Sebastian Kurpiel via Unsplash
About the speaker
Luciana Cardi is an associate professor at Kansai University, Osaka, Japan. She specialises in comparative literature (Japanese and English literature), with a particular focus on cross-cultural adaptations of folktales in modern and contemporary fiction. She is also interested in the reception of Graeco-Roman antiquity in Japanese literature and leads the international research project “Reception of Western Classics in Japan: From the Early Modern Period to the Age of Globalization”.
