Yuri

This article covers the literary genre Yuri. For other terms also written Yuri see under Juri (disambiguation) .

Example of a picture with the theme of Yuri

Yuri ( jap. 百合 , eng. " Lily ") is a word from Japanese jargon to denote content in which the love between women, a lesbian relationship, is at the center. It also describes a genre in the Japanese media ( manga , anime , etc.) where this topic plays a central role. The genre is aimed at both male and female target groups.

Synonymous in use is Wasei-eigo Girls Love ( ガ ー ル ズ ラ ブ , Gāruzu rabu , short: GL ), which is mainly used by publishers to identify the relevant media.

As a counterpart to homosexual relationships between men, the name and genre Yaoi has emerged.

Especially before the Second World War, the term Esu ( エ ス , i.e. the letter S) or Kurasu Esu ( ク ラ ス エ ス , i.e. Class S), which stands for sister or shōjo ( ), was mainly used for such love relationships between an older and a younger student . Girl), sex , the then common German loan word Schöne or escape (skipping lessons).

Differences in Western and Japanese usage of the terms

Yuri can refer to sexual, spiritual or emotional aspects. In western countries a finer distinction has emerged here. Here Yuri refers primarily to the former aspect, while the term Shōjo Ai ( 少女 愛 , dt. "Girl's love") is used to refer primarily to the latter: works in which the interpersonal relationship of female homosexuality is thematized and only rarely the sexual erotic aspect is dealt with. It should be noted that the term Shōjo Ai is also common in Japanese, but is used there to refer to pedophilia , and thus has a similar meaning to Lolicon .

literature

• Kazumi Nagaike: The Sexual and Textual Politics of Japanese Lesbian Comics . Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, Oita University Center for International Education and Research, 2010.
• Verena Maser: Beautiful and Innocent: Female Same-Sex Intimacy in the Japanese Yuri Genre . Dissertation, University of Trier, 2015.

Web links

• Essay about Yuri in the Open Access Digital Initiative of the University of Tokyo (English)
• Nicki Bauman: Yuri is for Everyone: An analysis of yuri demographics and readership , article at Anime Feminist (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sabdha Charlton: Yuri fandom on the Internet. In: Yuricon. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009 ; accessed on November 18, 2013 . 
2. ↑ 女性 同 士 の LOVE を 描 い た 、 男子 禁制 の “百合 ブ ー ム” が や っ て く る!? . Cyzo, February 29, 2008, accessed January 12, 2011 (Japanese). 
3. ↑ Ga-netchû! The Manga-Anime-Syndrom , p. 269. Henschel Verlag, 2008
4. ↑ Jennifer Ellen Robertson: Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan . University of California Press, 1998, ISBN 0-520-21151-0 , pp. 68–69 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
5. ↑ James Valentine: Pots and Pans: Identification of Queer Japanese in Terms of Discrimination . In: Anna Livia, Kira Hall (Ed.): Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality: Language, Gender, and Sexuality . Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-510470-6 , pp. 101 ( limited preview in Google Book search).