Relying on Bruno Latour's actor network theory, the project investigates the shift from the use of flowers and plants as a projection of human emotions in twentieth century literature and illustration, from prewar works such as Yoshiya Nobuko's short story series Hana monogatari (Flower stories) and the illustrations in girl magazines of artists like Takabatake Kasho and Takehisa Yumeji to postwar girl manga like Ikeda Riyoko's Berusaiyu no bara (The Rose of Versailles), to a representation of flowers and plants as agents in their own right that engender affective reactions in characters and readers in the new millennium, in manga like Hagio Moto's Nanohana (Canola flowers) and Ayase Maru's Mori ga afureru (The forest brims over).
Presentations of the project
2026
- Suter, Rebecca (August 2026): The paper “Botanical Imagination in Throne of Blood: Rethinking Kurosawa's Shakespeare,” presented at European Association of Japanese Studies (EAJS) Triennial Conference, Poznań, Poland.
- Suter, Rebecca (January 2026): Led Eco-Emotions reading seminar, on botanical imagination.
- Suter, Rebecca (April 2025): The paper “Gender and genre in women's manga,” presented at the University of Bergamo, Italy.
- Suter, Rebecca (April 2025): The paper “Kawaii, Japan's culture of cuteness,” presented at Scuola Belleville, Milano, Italy.
Suter, Rebecca (August 2025): The paper “Can manga flowers teach us eco-emotions?,” presented at the workshop “Women’s Voices: on women's manga,” Amami, Japan.
Rebecca Marcella Suter on the poster from the workshop "Women's Voices: on women's manga," Amami, Japan. - Suter, Rebecca: (September 2025): The paper “Breathing in a Puddle: Affective Responses to Water in Contemporary Japanese author Takase Junko,” presented at the conference “Eco-Emotions on Water,” University of Oslo, Norway.