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Staff Profile

Dr Gitte Marianne Hansen

Reader in Japanese Studies

Background

After finishing a BA in Japanese Studies and a MA in East Asia Studies from the University of Copenhagen, I studied and worked in Japan for five years as a teaching and research assistant to Professor Kato Norihiro at Waseda University. I then returned to Europe to undertake my PhD research at the University of Cambridge where I held a Gates Cambridge Trust scholarship. I joined the School of Modern Languages at Newcastle University in 2013.

In my research and teaching I look at contemporary Japanese culture and literature, especially culture from bubble Japan (1980s). I lead an AHRC (Leadership Fellow Scheme) funded project on Murakami Haruki (February 2017- July 2018) https://research.ncl.ac.uk/murakami/.

I am also interested in literary translation and have translated two short stories by Murakami Haruki and Tsushima Yuko.

 


Office:

Old Library Building 5.36


Role

Head of Section in East Asian Studies



Affiliations

Adjunct Researcher, Gender Studies Institute, Waseda University


External roles:

External examiner at Danish national universities

  

Research

Current Research

I have an interest in contemporary Japanese literature and culture since the 1970s (particularly the bubble years of the 1980s). I am especially interested in character construction techniques and story repetition across genre. For a while I have focused on Murakami Haruki and starting in 2018, I lead the AHRC funded project, Genderign Murakami Haruki: Characters, Transmedial Productions and Contemporary Japan. The project aims to examine Murakami's literary works in terms of the processes of translation, transmedial production and the gendering of his characters. I am particularly interested in Murakami's female characters and their changing position and diverse representation. For more information see my website: Eyes on Murakami: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/murakami/

Outputs related to my Murakami project includes a special issue on Murakami Haruki at Japan Forum Vol 32(3) that I co-edited in 2020 with Dr. Michael Tsang. Together we have also edited the volume Murakami Haruki and Our Years of Pilgrimage published with Routledge in 2022.

Together with Professor Christopher Jones, I produced the art catalogue, Beyond Words: Transmediating Murakami Haruki, 2018. The catalogue can be viewed here: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/media/sites/researchwebsites/eyesonmurakami/Beyond%20Words%20-%20Transmediating%20Murakami%20Haruki%20(Jones%20&%20Hansen,%202018).pdf


Apart from literary and cultural studies, I am also interested in anthropological and ethnographical methodologies and I generally value interdisciplinary approaches to the field of Japan. In 2022 together with Dr Fabio Gygi, I edited the volume The work of Gender: Service. Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan with NIAS Press (now NUS press) https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/the-work-of-gender, and in 2016 I published my first monograph with Routledge: Femininity, Self-harm and Eating Disorders in Japan - Navigating contradiction in narrative and visual culture: https://www.routledge.com/Femininity-Self-harm-and-Eating-Disorders-in-Japan-Navigating-contradiction/Hansen/p/book/9781138905306


Research Interests

Bubble Japan, contemporary Japanese literature, manga, anime, artwork, pop-culture, gender studies, feminist theory, normativity, eating disorders, self-harm, violence, character construction theory, Murakami Haruki.


Graduate Students

I welcome MA and PhD students who are interested in any aspect of bubble culture Japan, contemporary Japanese literature and other cultural forms such as manga, visual arts and TV drama and/or topics related to contemporary Japanese society such as gender and normativity. I very much encourage projects with an interdisciplinary approach.


Teaching

Literary and cultural expression in contemporary Japan (JPN4006)

In this final year module we read authors such as Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana and Kanehara Hitomi in English with the purpose of understanding the meaning of the text from the perspective of contemporary Japanese society and contemporary Japanese cultural criticism. While the main focus is on literary works we also examine other cultural expressions such as film, anime or manga.

Contemporary Japanese popular culture (JPN2004)

While considering what cultural forms can be considered pop, in this module we study a range of Japanese popular culture such as manga, anime, TV drama and film.

Introduction to Japanese history and culture (JPN1005)

I teach the second half (semester 2) of this introductory module. The focus is on contemporary Japan--its culture and society. This module forms a foundation for all other modules offered on Japan.

Japanese language level C and D

In the seminar I teach as part of level C and D Japanese, we read original literary texts by for example Murakami Haruki and Otsuichi as well as articles published for a Japanese audience. The seminar pays attention to the market for literary translation and discusses the challenges literary translators are face with.

Publications