Dr Irene González-López
Faculties, departments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Creative Industries
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
Post-Doctoral Researcher
- Email:
- [email protected]
About
I am a film studies' scholar specialising in Japanese Cinema and Popular Culture and interested in the relation between Japanese society and its representation in the media and the arts.
I lived in Japan seven years during which I became fluent in Japanese and completed a BA in Japanese Studies (Tenri University) and an MA in Film Studies (Kyoto University). I also learned traditional arts such as ikebana, and experienced a wide range of occupations, from factory worker and waitress in a 'snackbar' to interpreter and university lecturer, which provide me invaluable insights into many different spheres of Japanese society.
Upon my return to Europe, I was awarded a PhD by SOAS in 2017. My doctoral research explored the representation of prostitutes in postwar Japanese cinema to investigate Japan's changing social and sexual mores.
In addition to my research at Kingston, I lead courses and seminars in Japanese Cultural History and Media and Film Studies at SOAS and David Game College, collaborate with various film festivals, and work as a translator.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. Centre for Film Studies, SOAS, University of London (Thesis Unconditional Pass)
- MA Film Studies, Kyoto University (Japan)
- BA (Hons) International Cultural Studies, Major: Japanese Language, Tenri University (Japan)
- BA Media Studies, Pontificial University of Salamanca (Spain)
Domains
My research interests are in Japanese cinema and culture, audio-visual art forms, gender studies, and stardom. I am particularly interested in the construction and representation of the body, gender, and sexuality, and the ways in which aesthetics and meaning intersect with power.
My PhD research focused on the representation of prostitutes in melodrama, avant-garde and soft-porn productions of postwar Japanese cinema, and analysed these tropes in relation to discourses of modernisation, national history and gender identities. My current research looks at the negotiation of collective memory through audio-visual imagery of occupied Japan. Beyond cinema, I am exploring other creative industries including manga, video-art, performance, television and magazines. I have also been researching Japanese female directors for more than five years.
In 2018 I co-edited 'Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity', the first book in English on the work of legendary actress and director Tanaka Kinuyo.
Specialisms
- Japanese cinema
- Gender and sexuality
- Japanese female directors
- Adaptations and remakes
- Stardom
Publications
Tanaka Kinuyo: nation, stardom and female subjectivity
(2018). Edinburgh, U.K.: (Edinburgh University Press)
Marketing the panpan in Japanese popular culture : youth, sexuality, and power
González-López, Irene, 2018, U.S.-Japan Women's Journal (54), pp 29-51
In search of the authentic Japanese taste : 'Solitary Gourmet' and cultural tourism = En busca del auténtico sabor japonés : El Gourmet Solitario y el turismo cultural
González-López, Irene, 2018, Mirai. Estudios Japoneses (2), pp 49-66
Roundtable : the position of women in post-war Japanese cinema (Kinema Junpo, 1961)
Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra and Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene, 2017, Film Studies (16), 1, pp 36-55
Josei no seiteki yokubō no hatsuro – Tanaka Kinuyo kantoku sakuhin [Chibusa yo eien nare] = [Expressing female sexual desire : director Tanaka Kinuyo's 'The eternal breasts']
Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene and Ueda, Mayu, 2015, CineMagaziNet!, 19
Wakao Ayako and post-war Japanese studio system : celebrity and performer
Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene, 2014, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema (6), 1, pp 39-54
Introduction : Onna Monogatari
Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene and Smith, Michael (2018). In: Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene, (eds.) and Smith, Michael, (eds.), Tanaka Kinuyo : nation, stardom and female subjectivity. Edinburgh, U.K.: Edinburgh University Press, pp 1-35
The first female gaze at postwar Japanese women : Tanaka Kinuyo, film director
González-López, Irene and Mayu, Ashida (2018). In: González-López, Irene, (eds.) and Smith, Michael, (eds.), Tanaka Kinuyo : nation, stardom and female subjectivity. Edinburgh, U.K.: Edinburgh University Press, pp 104-125
The profound desire of the goddess : sexuality and politics in 'The insect woman'
Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene (2018). In: Torres Hortelano, Lorenzo J., (ed.), Dialectics of the goddess in Japanese audiovisual culture. Lanham, U.S.: Lexington Books, pp 27-49
Mizoguchi y los Ultimos Dias del Barrio Rojo = [Mizoguchi and the last days of the red-light district]
Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene (2016). In: Lozano Mendez, Artur, (ed.), El Japon contemporaneo : una aproximacion desde los Estudios Culturales. Barcelona, Spain: Bellaterra, pp 105-126