근대 일본의 시각문화 속에 나타난 모던걸의 외양 -영화, 광고, 만화를 중심으로-

Abstract

Urban modernity does not solely mean modernization of overall urban structures and functions and the concomitant growth of urban economy. But it also emerges from modernity of inner-city culture. While the substantial emergence of modern cities in Japan started as western cultures which were ushered and then became gradually established in it led to accelerating further alteration and modification of its traditional cultures, women played a significant part in cultural modernization of the Japanese society through their active reception of western cultures: the various images of those women or so-called modern girls appearing in the 1920s Japan’s visual cultural scenes played an educational role by presenting the rest of women in the then Japanese society which type of female role model they should or should not long for. Different forms of media in that period such as movies, advertisements and publications have emphasized the danger of modern young women falling into sexual decadence as the (stereotypical) image of a female role model that Japanese women should not follow; by doing so they have tried to educate the women to be led to “a right and sound direction”. However, despite that their westernized image has been, on the surface, criticized societally, the presence of these modern girls with their fashionable appearance ornamented with westernized outfits, make-ups and accessories in newly-created spaces for cultural consumption – i.e. department stores, cafes, movie theaters and performance halls – within modern cities has been itself interiorly longed for among many of Japanese women at that time who crave for experiencing new culture and modern life style through their cultural consumptions. Eventually, such a cultural trend emergent in the early-twentieth-century Japan could be seen as the outcome borne out of the confrontation between two contrasting appraisals on modern girls – (1) as progressive women capable of catching up well with the then latest mainstream trend like westernization and (2) as women who over-emphasized their visual images whose meanings and subsequent socio-cultural ramifications cannot be deliberated, more meaningfully, in a broader context of modern urban culture.