Articles
Romancing the Role Model: Florence Nightingale, Shōjo Manga, and the Literature of Self-Improvement
Abstract
Within the diverse world of Japanese print media, the genre of "educational manga" (gakushū manga) occupies a unique place between the seemingly incompatible spheres of education and entertainment. The subgenre of biographical manga straddles these domains, combining the emphasis of prewar shūshin (self-conduct) textbooks and denki (biography) novels on the lives and virtues of great figures with the storytelling techniques and readers'expectations of shōjo (girls') manga. This article examines manga depictions of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), a staple of educational materials in Japan for decades, and explores how her inspirational story has been illustrated and adapted to suit the changing tastes of contemporary Japanese readers.