Susan Jolliffe Napier (née Phelps; born October 1955) is a professor of the Japanese program at Tufts University. She was formerly the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of Texas at Austin. She also worked as a visiting professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University,[1] and in cinema and media studies at University of Pennsylvania. Napier is an anime and manga critic.
Susan J. Napier | |
|---|---|
 Napier at New York Comic Con in 2012 | |
| Born | Susan Jolliffe Phelps October 1955 (age 68) Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupation | Professor, anime critic |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Subject | Japanese literature |
| Notable works | |
| Parents |
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| Signature | |
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Biography
editSusan Jolliffe Phelps was born in October 1955, the daughter of Reginald H. Phelps (1909–2006), a historian and educational administrator, and Julia Phelps (née Sears; d. 1995).[2][3] She was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts,[4] graduated from Radcliffe College,[5] and obtained her A.B., A.M., and PhD degrees from Harvard University.[6] She married Ron Wells Napier on August 20, 1977, at King's Chapel,[5] and their daughter, Julia Diana Napier, was born on December 29, 1989.[7][8] Napier taught Japanese and video at the University of Texas at Austin, and began working at a university in New York around 1985.[9]
In 1991, Napier published Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo. Her second book, The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: The Subversion of Modernity, followed in 1996.[6] Napier first became interested in anime and manga when a student showed her a copy of Akira. Napier then saw the film, which led to the creation of her third book, Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation,[1][10] which was revised in 2005.[11] Napier's From Impressionism To Anime: Japan As Fantasy And Fan Cult In The Western Imagination was published in 2007, which discusses anime fandom in greater depth.[12][13]
Napier met her husband, Steve Coit, the year she started researching her book Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art, which was released eight years later in 2018.[8]
Works
edit- ——— (1996). The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: The Subversion of Modernity. London: Routledge. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-415-12458-4.
- ——— (1998). "Vampires, Psychic Girls, Flying Women and Sailor Scouts". In Martinez, Dolores P (ed.). The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Culture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-63128-9.
- ——— (2001). "Confronting Master Narratives: History As Vision in Miyazaki Hayao's Cinema of De-assurance". Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique. 9 (2): 467–493. doi:10.1215/10679847-9-2-467. S2CID 144130648.
- ——— (March 11, 2008). From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 272. ISBN 978-1-4039-6214-0.
- ——— (2006). Meet Me on the Other Side: Strategies of Otherness in Modern Japanese literature. London: Routledge. pp. 38–55. ISBN 978-0-415-36185-9.
- ——— (2006). "'Excuse Me, Who Are You?': Performance, the Gaze, and the Female in the Works of Kon Satoshi". In Brown, Steven T (ed.). Cinema Anime: Critical Engagements with Japanese Animation. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-8308-4.
- ——— (2005). Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-4039-7052-7.
- ——— (2007). "When the Machine Stops: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments: Lain". Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime. University of Minnesota Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-8166-4973-0.
- ——— (2018). Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art. Yale University Press. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-300-22685-0.
References
edit- ^ a b "Anime Lecture at MIT". Anime News Network. May 1, 2001. Retrieved November 27, 2009.
- ^ "Reginald Phelps Obituary". The Republican. Springfield, Massachusetts: Advance Publications. September 30, 2006. p. 16. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ "Sunday Services". The Morning Union. Springfield, Massachusetts: Advance Publications. October 15, 1955 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Cohen, Georgiana (April 30, 2007). "Don't Call Them Cartoons". Tufts University. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 16, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ a b "Weddings". Boston Sunday Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. August 21, 1977. p. 62 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Susan J. Napier". Tufts University. Archived from the original on January 17, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ "Banking house promotes Napier to London post". Baxter Bulletin. Mountain Home, Arkansas: Multimedia, Inc. February 24, 1990. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Napier 2018, Acknowledgments.
- ^ "Ron Napier on Wall Street". Baxter Bulletin. Mountain Home, Arkansas: Multimedia, Inc. July 19, 1985. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Gerrow, Robin (2004). "An Anime Explosion". University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on October 13, 2009. Retrieved November 28, 2009.
- ^ "Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle". Palgrave Macmillan. Archived from the original on December 30, 2005. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
- ^ "Susan Napier presents new book on American anime fans". Anime News Network. March 30, 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2009.
- ^ Denison, Rayna (November 2009). "Review: Napier, Susan J.: From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2007)" (PDF). Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies. 6 (2): 437–439.