Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS)Waseda University

Name

ESCANDE, Jessy

Degree

Ph.D. in Literature

HP (URL)

https://researchmap.jp/Escande_Jessy?lang=en

Status

Assistant Professor

Research Topic

Reception of Foreign Cultures in Japanese Fantasy Works: Regarding the Role of Games as Cultural Brokers

This study focuses on a segment of contemporary Japanese fantasy constructed through the reception of foreign cultures. I defined it as “database fantasy,” a genre that transcends media and subgenre boundaries but revolves around the repeated introduction and internalization therein of motifs derived from foreign mythologies, folklores, or religions.
An overarching concern of this research project is to deepen the understanding of the culturally hybridized imaginary found in database fantasy. Based on a transnational and interdisciplinary approach that includes game studies, comparative cultural studies, aesthetics, folklore studies, semiotics, and information studies, among others, this study aims to provide a detailed overview of the network of cultural transfers in database fantasy.

Education and Academic Employment

Education

Academic Employment

Fields of Research Interests

Popular culture; game studies; genre studies; sociology; semiotics; comparative cultural studies; aesthetics

Academic Publications

• Jessy ESCANDE, “Compiling, connecting, transforming: The role of fantasy bestiaries in the transmedial diffusion and appropriation of foreign imaginaries in Japan”, REPLAYING JAPAN No.5, pp. 65-79, March 2023.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “Foreign Yet Familiar: J. L. Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings and Other Cultural Ferrymen in Japanese Fantasy Games”, Games and Culture, 18(1), pp. 3-26, January 2023
• Jessy ESCANDE, “On Cultural Appropriation in Japanese Fantasy: Of the Necessity of Questioning the Phenomenon and Rethinking Its Theoretical Framework” [nihon fantajī ni okeru bunka no tōyō mondai：sono kōsatsu to riron saikō no hitsuyōsei ni kanshite], Machikaneyama Ronsō, No 56, pp. 113-132, December 2022.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “On the Golems in Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture: From the Motif’s Monsterization in Games to Its Diffusion to Other Media” [gendai nihon poppukaruchā ni okeru gōremu ni tsuite：gēmu ni okeru monsutāka kara tamedia e no kakusan made], Studies in Comparative Culture, No 149, pp. 107-121, October 2022.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “A Study of Game-like Worlds in Isekai-Mono: Regarding Criticisms about Contemporary Japanese Society Found in the Texts” [isekai mono ni okeru gēmuteki sekai no kōsatsu：tekusuto ni mirareru gendai nihon shakai hihan o megutte], Jinbun x Shakai, No 7, pp. 39-53.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “Jingai Characters in Japanese Popular Culture and Their Function as Proxies for Representing and Questioning Otherness”, Coping with the “New Normal” and the Promotion of International Exchange, pp. 31-39, 2022 (International Affairs Office, School of Letters/Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University), July 2022.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “Peregrinations of the Ghoul: Tracing a Cultural Transfer from Pre-Islamic Arab Folklore to Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture” [gūru no hōrō：kodai arabia kara gendai nippon e no bunka iten o tsuiseki shite], Studies in Comparative Culture, No 146, pp. 1-14, January 2022.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “The Metamorphosis of the Catoblepas: A case study on transformative cultural transfers in Japanese popular culture” [katoburepasu no henbō：nihon poppukaruchā ni okeru bunkaitenteki henyō no jireikenkyū toshite], Studies in Comparative Culture, No 145, pp. 1-13, October 2021.
• Jessy ESCANDE, “On the cultural transfers of motifs in contemporary Japanese fantasy: Focusing on Tabletop RolePlaying Games (TRPGs)’ role as vectors [gendai nihon fantajī bungei sakuhin ni okeru mochīfu no bunkaiten：tēburutoppu rōrupureingu gēmu（TRPG）no baitai toshite no yakuwari o chūshin ni], Journal of Socio-Culture, No 23, pp. 73-95, June 2021.

Other Interests

Cooking and baking, hiking, TRPG, reading/watching/gaming

Affiliated Academic Organizations

The Society of Socio-Informatics
Digital Games Research Association Japan
International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA)
The Association for the Socio-Culture
The Japan Association of Comparative Culture
Japan Comparative Literature Association
Association for Cultural Typhoon
Japanese Association for Contents History Studies
The Japanese Association for Semiotic Studies
The Association for Studies of Culture and Representation
The Japanese Society for Aesthetics
Hanshin-Association Modern Japanese Literary Studies
Handai Comparative Literature Association