Gender Bending and Exoticism in Japanese Girls’ Comics

Gender bending has been a staple of the medium of shōjo manga, Japanese girls’ comics, as best exemplified by cross-dressing “girl knight” characters and “Boys Love” stories, whose plots focus on romance between effeminate beautiful young men. The imaginary space created through the representation of these figures shares many traits in common with another typical feature of shōjo comics, namely their exoticisation of Europe. Both have been used as simultaneously escapist and subversive strategies, as a refuge from contemporary social norms and a platform for critical reflection. In this article, I aim to problematise our understanding of the connection between gender bending and exoticism in shōjo manga through an analysis of the representation of one specific aspect of European culture – namely, the Christian religion – in the genre of Boys Love manga.     

Telling Stories about the Colonies: British and French Women in Algeria in the Nineteenth Century

This article recounts the stories told about Véronique Eugénie Allix‐Luce and her school for Muslim girls founded in Algiers in 1845. Drawing on English feminist writings, including correspondence and travel narratives, it explores how women, such as Barbara Bodichon and Bessie Rayner Parkes, constructed this French schoolteacher as a modern day heroine. French colonial authorities and women's travel narratives provide a more complicated portrait and reveal the weight of cultural and gender politics within the French ‘civilising mission’ that ultimately erased the memory of this initiative. By retelling the story of Mme Luce's school through the double perspective of British and French contemporaries, the article offers insight into the disappearance of women's roles in the French story of Algerian colonisation.     

‘The White Wife Problem’: Sex,Race and the Contested Politics of Repatriation to Interwar British West Africa

Based on archival research in Ghana and Britain, this article documents the sustained but failed attempts of working‐class West African seamen to repatriate to the colonies with their European wives during the interwar years. Colonial authorities crafted policies to prevent these couples from making British West Africa home because they feared that the presence of European women living ‘in native fashion’ with their African husbands would destabilise colonial race relations. After discussing the origins of this policy in the context of the 1919 race riots that swept Britain's port cities, the article draws on the case of a West African man married to a German woman to illuminate how concerns about race, sex, gender, nationality and class informed the politics of repatriation to British West Africa during the interwar years.     

Book reviews

Negotiating Development. P. Healey, M. Purdue and F. Ennis, London: E&FN Spon, 1995, 212 pp, £29.95 hb, ISBN 0 419 19410 X

The Rise of the Rustbelt. P. Cooke (Ed.), London, UCL Press, 1995, i‐x+272 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85728 420 8; £14.95 pb, ISBN 1 85728 419 4

Urban Change and Renewal: The Paradox of Place. P. Garrahan and P. Stewart (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1994, viii+200 pp, £32.50 hb, ISBN 1 85628 610 X

Territorial Competition in an Integrating Europe. P. Cheshire and I. Gordon (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1995, 317 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85972 112 5

Reconstituting Rurality: Class, Community and Power in the Development Process. Jonathan Murdoch and Terry Marsden, London: UCL Press, 1994, xv + 256 pp. ISBN 1 85728 041 5 hb     

Book reviews

CHINA AND THE OVERSEAS CHINESE. A STUDY OF PEKING'S CHANGING POLICY, 1949–1970. Stephen FitzGerald. Cambridge University Press, 1972. 268 pp. £5.90.

CHINA'S WORLD: THE FOREIGN POLICY OF A DEVELOPING STATE. J. D. Simmonds. Australian National University Press, 1970. 0–7081–0694–3. 200 pp. $6.95.

THE CONVENTIONS OF CRISIS: A STUDY IN DIPLOMATIC MANAGEMENT. Coral Bell. Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1971. 0–19–285054–7. 131 pp. $3.40 paper.

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS: PAKISTAN 1962–1969. Herbert Feldmon. Oxford University Press, London, 1972. 0–19–215192–4. 340 pp. $17.10.

INDIAN REVOLUTIONARIES ABROAD. A. C. Bose. Bha Rati Bhawan, Patna, 1971. 268 pp. Rs. 30.00.

THE AUSTRALIAN‐NEW ZEALAND AGREEMENT 1944. Robin Kay (ed.). A. R. Shearer, Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand, 1972. 297 pp. $NZ7.50.

PASSING FOR WHITE. A STUDY OF RACIAL ASSIMILATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL. Graham Watson. Tavistock, London, 1970. 422–75470–6. 130 pp. $2.70, Social Science paperback, $7.10 hard‐cover.

ABORIGINES AND SETTLERS: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE (1788–1939). Henry Reynolds. Cassell, Melbourne, 1972. 422–75470–6. $3.75.

WORLD ARMAMENTS AND DISARMAMENT: SIPRI YEARBOOK 1972. Almqvist and Wiksell, for SIPRI (Stockhohn International Peace Research Institute), Stockholm 1972. 91–85114–12‐X. 611 pp. $US15.00.

THE PROBLEM OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE. Volume V: THE PREVENTION OF CBW. SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm and Humanities Press, New York, 1971. 287 pp. $13 hard cover.

IN THE MINDS OF MEN: UNESCO 1946–1971. Gian Franco Pompei and others. UNESCO, Paris, 1972. 319 pp. $3.35 paper.

PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT POLICY. Paul Heller. New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1972. 50 pp.

BRAZIL: THE PEOPLE AND THE POWER. M. Arraes. Pelican Latin American Library. $1.35.