Friday, May 20, 3-5 p.m. in CEAS 319 (1155 E 60th St)
William Feeney, “Smiles and Scars”
William Feeney will present a work-in-progress version of one of his dissertation chapters. He summarizes the chapter as follows.
‘Smiles and Scars’ considers the potential for complaints about television to link comedic vulgarity with ijime (bullying) in schools. Ijime emerged as a serious social concern in Japan in the 1980’s and since that time comedy and variety television has been periodically identified as a source of problematic vulgar contagion. This paper opens by exploring oft cited features of ijime before turning to the communicative norms, ideological grounds and social anxieties that render links with comedy television plausible. I argue that inherent difficulty of distinguishing alienating ijime from inclusive teasing among intimates stand as a principle loci of concern that can be tapped to effectively formulate and circulate such links.
A draft of William’s chapter is available at this link. If you have not received the password for the post, or if you have concerns about accessibility, please feel free to contact David Krolikoski at davidkroli at uchicago.edu or Brian White at bmwhite at uchicago.edu.
