Laurel Kamada Taking Control of Ethnic & Gendered "Othering":
Discursive Talk of Japanese-Caucasian Early-Adolescent Girls in Japan Click here to download Laurel Kamada's paper in pdf format.

Aomori Akenohoshi Junior College
104-2 Kawai
Koguriyama
Hirosaki City
Aomori Prefecture
JAPAN 036-8127
laurelkamada@hotmail.com

Abstract

This poster examines unstructured interview and focus group data of a network of six multi-ethnic (Japanese-Caucasian) adolescent girl friends in Japan. All of the girls have one Japanese parent and one Caucasian foreign-raised native English speaking parent. In a community where international schools exist, these families have all consciously selected Japanese public schools for these girls. Some of the girls are very proficient in English; others are not comfortable using English.

The girls' Japanese and English talk is analyzed (using discursive psychology DA) to examine the various interpretive repertoires available to them and to clarify various subject positionings that the girls take up. What these girls are "doing" in their talk and how they take up certain available repertoires to position themselves will be highlighted. Their subject positions include "protruding from the crowd", "left out and ignored," "feeling above them (Japanese peers), "being a Japanese girl who happens to have a strange foreign parent."

The poster will illustrate the dilemma of how these girls are sometimes marginalized and limited by the ethnic and gendered repertoires available to them and yet at other times how they are able to access their multi-ethnic and gendered "cultural capital" and resources (including ability to use two languages, possession of world savvy and availability of greater choices) in order to boost their self-esteem. Other ideological dilemmas emerging in their talk include "the undesirableness of standing out in Japanese society" dilemmatic with the "pride of being different, unique and special;" and "the favorableness of femininity/femaleness," dilemmatic with "the limitations of femininity/femaleness." The poster will feature tables, graphs, photos and extracts from the data.

Poster Materials

Click here to download Laurel Kamada's paper in pdf format.



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