Characteristics of the Japanese Cellphone Novel
Main Aspects of a Modern Literary Genre Created on Mobile Phones
The fulminate spread and rise of the Cellphone Novel in Japan is the first major literary movement of the 21st century and brought about many controversies about the definition of art, the nature of literature and the cultural development in Japan. The reason for these discussions are the characteristics of this new literary genre born on the mobile phones of young female students. Some of them are:
- Short and simple sentences
- Mainly action and thought, no description
- First person perspective
- Very little plotting or character evolution
- Young language, slang
- Use of non-textual elements (symbols, emoticons)
- Love and stereotypes as major themes
An Explanation of the Different Aspects of the Cellphone Novels
Some of these main characteristics can be explained by the medium these novels are produced on: Mobile phones having a very restricted viewing area for whatever content their user wants to see, long sentences would be too cumbersome to construct and revise on the tiny screens, therefore short sentences are preferred. Still, many authors do legitimate the simplicity of their sentences by the fact that their main public are high-school and university students who, just as them, have no relationship to classic literature and perceive the classic literary writing as too ingenious and difficult to understand.
However, Japanese and Chinese languages seem to have a predilection for this kind of writing, as both are high-context idioms, languages where general words gain substantially in meaning through widely established links which the wide majority of the speakers understand immediately although they are implicit and sometimes very subtle. Consequently, Japanese sentences often consist of only one verb or a few words.
The "short and snappy" attitude which widely excludes descriptive passages is, just as the first person perspective, are ways of approaching the reader and making him identify with the character. Pure, self-centered thoughts and actions feel more authentic to the readers as they don't think in descriptions.
The absence of character development and complex personalities facilitates the reading process further and are also partly a result of the inexperience of the authors with traditional literature. The bit by bit writing and uploading process render a more complex structure generally impossible as the author has no real overview of the whole work.
The slang which is often employed creates an atmosphere of intimacy between the text and the reader because it gives him the illusion of reading a text made personally for him and employing his very language. The abbreviations and slang terms are greatly influenced by the text messaging habits of the authors.
The frequent enrichment of their texts by emoticons (tiny pictograms available on mobile phones) and other symbols try to add a modern dimension to the text, they can be seen as a way of further implementation of the modern technology. Generally, emoticons find a frequent utilization in Japanese text messages and e-mails, too.
The most popular themes of Cellphone Novels are love, sex and violence. They are often treated in a very stereotypical way and are said to focus on the major interests of the young generation.
The Controversy About the Allegedly Inferior Quality of Books Written on Mobile Phones
Many of these characteristic aren't consciously provoked but rather intuitively by the authors, as most of them aren't familiar with the classic literary approach of working and reviewing a text many times. This led to strong criticism about the supposedly poor quality of Cellphone Novels: Many critics started by dismissing them as a sub-genre unworthy of being called literature then later on deplored the alleged decline of Japanese literature when the Cellphone Novel gained in influence and was irrevocably dominating mainstream literature by 2007-2008.
Soon, literary circles and magazines like the Bungaku-kai asked: "Will the Cellphone Novel kill the [traditional] author?" as a reaction to the enormously high sales volumes they generated. Fans responded by highlighting the modern approach of the Cellphone Novel and the formation of new reading habits due to mobile electronics.
Related Resources:
A Japanese Cellphone
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