Hybrid Identities and Adolescent Girls

Laurel D. Kamada

Description

This is the first in-depth examination of “half-Japanese” girls in Japan focusing on ethnic, gendered and embodied ‘hybrid’ identities. Challenging the myth of Japan as a single-race society, these girls are seen struggling to positively manoeuvre themselves and negotiate their identities into positions of contestation and control over marginalizing discourses which disempower them as ‘others’ within Japanese society as they begin to mature. Paradoxically, at other times, within more empowering alternative discourses of ethnicity, they also enjoy and celebrate cultural, symbolic, social and linguistic capital which they discursively create for themselves as they come to terms with their constructed identities of “Japaneseness”, “whiteness” and “halfness/doubleness”. This book has a colourful storyline throughout - narrated in the girls’ own voices - that follows them out of childhood and into the rapid physical and emotional growth years of early adolescence.

Chapter 1: Constructing Hybrid Identity in Japan

Chapter 2: Examining Discourses of ‘Otherness’ in Japan

Chapter 3: The Participants and the Data Collection

Chapter 4: Negotiating Identities

Chapter 5: Claiming Good Difference; Rejecting Bad Difference

Chapter 6: Celebration of Cultural, Symbolic, Linguistic, and Social Capital

Chapter 7: Discursive ‘Embodied’ Identities of Ethnicity and Gender

Chapter 8: Discursive Construction of Hybrid Identity in Japan: Where has it Taken Us?

Sujets

• Ethnic Studies
• Gender Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Discourse analysis
• Whiteness
• Professional
• Personality
• Postgraduate education
• General officer
• Ethnic group
• Sociolinguistics
• Gender
• Psychology
• Blanchitude
• General
• Research
• Postgraduate

Informations

• Publié par: Channel View Publications
• Date de parution: 23 décembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781847692344
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Hybrid Identities and
Adolescent Girls
1721_FM.indd1721_FM.indd ii 12/8/200912/8/2009 12:03:10 PM12:03:10 PMCRITICAL LANGUAGE AND LITERACY STUDIES
Series Editors: Vaidehi Ramanathan, University of California, USA; Bonny Norton,
University of British Columbia, Canada; and Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology,
Sydney, Australia
Critical Language and Literacy Studies is an international series that encourages
monographs directly addressing issues of power (its f ows, inequities, distributions,
trajectories) in a variety of language- and literacy-related realms. The aim with
this series is twofold: (1) to cultivate scholarship that openly engages with social,
political and historical dimensions in language and literacy studies and (2) to widen
disciplinary horizons by encouraging new work on topics that have received little
focus (see below for partial list of subject areas) and that use innovative theoretical
frameworks.
Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be
found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual
Matters, St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.
Other books in the series
Collaborative Research in Multilingual Classrooms
Corey Denos, Kelleen Toohey, Kathy Neilson and Bonnie Waterstone
English as a Local Language: Post-colonial Identities and Multilingual Practices
Christina Higgins
The Idea of English in Japan: Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language
Philip Seargeant
Language and HIV/AIDS
Christina Higgins and Bonny Norton (eds)
China and English: Globalisation and the Dilemmas of Identity
Joseph Lo Bianco, Jane Orton and Gao Yihong (eds)
1721_FM.indd1721_FM.indd ii ii 12/8/200912/8/2009 12:03:11 PM12:03:11 PMCRITICAL LANGUAGE AND LITERACY STUDIES
Series Editors: Vaidehi Ramanathan, Bonny Norton
and Alastair Pennycook
Hybrid Identities and
Adolescent Girls
Being ‘Half’ in Japan
Laurel D. Kamada
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
Bristol • Buffalo • Toronto
1721_FM.indd1721_FM.indd iii iii 12/8/200912/8/2009 12:03:11 PM12:03:11 PMDedicated to Jonah,
the six girls of this study
and all the other families like ours in Japan
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Kamada, Laurel D.
Hybrid Identities and Adolescent Girls: Being ‘Half’ in Japan/Laurel D. Kamada.
Critical Language and Literacy studies
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Identity (Psychology)--Social aspects--Japan--Case studies. 2. Racially mixed
children--Japan--Ethnic identity. 3. Language and culture--Japan--Case studies.
I. Title.
HM753.K34 2009
305.235’208905052–dc22 2009033792
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-233-7 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-232-0 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters
UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.
USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA.
Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario, M3H 5T8, Canada.
Copyright © 2010 Laurel D. Kamada.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any
means without permission in writing from the publisher.
The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers
that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in
sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further
support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain
of Custody certif cation. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books
where full certif cation has been granted to the printer concerned.
Typeset by Techset Composition Ltd., Salisbury, UK.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Short Run Press Ltd.
1721_FM.indd1721_FM.indd iv iv 12/8/200912/8/2009 12:03:11 PM12:03:11 PMContents
List of Tables and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Transcription Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
1 Constructing Hybrid Identity in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Importance and Timeliness of the Study of
Hybrid Identity in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
An Emerging Hybrid Identity in Japan 4
Participants and the Research Site of Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Central Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Structure of this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Examining Discourses of ‘Otherness’ in Japan within a
Multiperspective Discourse Analysis Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Introduction: Ethnicity, Ethnicism and Racialization . . . . . . . . . 16
From Structuralism to Poststructuralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A Multiperspective Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Commonalities of FPDA and DP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Discourses and Repertoires of Ethnicity in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
A ‘Discourse of Homogeneity’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A ‘Discourse of Conformity’ and Enactment
of Japaneseness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A ‘Discourse of Gaijin Otherness’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The ‘Momotarou Paradigm’: The Oni (Beast) as
Foreign ‘Other’ 36
A ‘Discourse of Interculturalism’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
‘Doing Gender’, ‘Doing Difference’ and
Ethno-Gendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
v
1721_FM.indd1721_FM.indd v v 12/8/200912/8/2009 12:03:11 PM12:03:11 PMvi Hybrid Identities and Adolescent Girls
The Social Construction of Gaijin in Japan Today . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3 The Participants and the Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Research Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
The English-Speaking Foreign Community in
Morita, Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The Six Participants: Families and Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Data Collection: Recorded Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Translation, Categorization and Analysis of the Data . . . . . . . . 68
The Six Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Unevenness of the Data Collected and Selected . . . . . . . . . 74
Other Collected Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Research Ethics: Adolescents, their Parents and Privacy . . . . . . 76
Ref exivity: The Analyst Appearing in the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4 Negotiating Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Introduction: Negotiating ‘Othered’ Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Isolation, Bullying and Being Left Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Constructing and Deconstructing Othering and
Otherness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Hamideru: Avoiding Being ‘The Nail that Sticks Out’ . . . . . . . . . 101
Negotiating Identities and Change over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5 Claiming Good Difference; Rejecting Bad Difference . . . . . . . . 120
Introduction: Good Difference; Bad Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Deconstructing ‘Othering’ and Privileging Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
There is No Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Constituting Difference and Privileging Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Categorizing Ethnic Selves: Multimemberships . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Differences between the Girls: Unevenness of the Data . . . . . . . 142
Changes over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6 Celebration of Cultural, Symbolic, Linguistic and
Social Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Discursive Construction of Cultural, Symbolic, Linguistic and
Social Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
1721_FM.indd1721_FM.indd vi vi 12/8/200912/8/2009 12:03:11 PM12:03:11 PMContents vii
Linguistic Capital of Bilingualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Capital Resources of English Language Literacy and
Possession of English Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Mixed-Ethnic Girl Friendships 162
Intercultural Savvy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166