Image of True Love and Unrequited Love in Black Butler by Yana Toboso and Shakespeare
The use of quotations in Japanese manga are like any other literary works are rather common. The difference may be that whether the source of the quotation is clearly stated or not. But some quotations are so popular that there is no necessity in stating the source. Quotations from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet could be considered as such even in Japan. And sometimes it is easy to point out the source or the original quotation even in the form of parody or in translation. Then the question comes to what is the purpose of using such quotations and what kind of image the author is trying to pass onto their readers with the use of quotations.
This paper will discuss the use of quotations in volume 3 of Yana Toboso’s Black Butler. In Black Butler Shakespeare’s words are first translated into Japanese then used out of context. This translation and transformation of context changes the nature of the quotation from romance to comedy. By analysing this scene and other related episodes it would reveal the change in the nature of the quotation and also by discussing the change in the media it is provided: from manga to animation, this change in the media adds another dimension to the quotation being from being read to spoken: from actively reading the quotations to passively listening to the quotations being spoken.
Bio
Kyoko Matsuyama is a full‐time associate-professor at Komazawa Women’s University in Japan. Her research centres on English Renaissance drama and their performance or acceptance by modern Japanese readers either in the form of Manga or Anime. She is also interested in the performance of the play and their acceptance by audience and their effect on the stage in 18th and 19th century London as well as modern London and Tokyo and program analysis on contemporary Shakespeare productions, mainly in London and Tokyo. Her major publications include “Edmund Kean’s Merchant of Venice and Richard the Third – Criticism of Kean after 1814 and Audience’s Reception –” in Global COE Bulletin Theatre and Film Studies 2008 vol.2 and “New Synergies in Contemporary British Shakespeare Performance – Reading through Programs –” in The Faculty Journal of Komazawa Women's University. Her other interests includes program analysis of modern English Reneissance productions and “Acceptance of Marlowe’s Edward the Second through the Program” in The Faculty Journal of Komazawa Women's University published in December 2013 is in that context. Her most recent work is “Edmund Kean’s Debut Performance in London, 1814” published in 2015 by Shakespeare en devenir - Les Cahiers de La Licorne - Shakespeare en devenir | N°9 - 2015. Which was adapted from the 2013 ESRA Conference seminar paper she read.