Eat, Sleep, Read, Repeat: Excess and Enjoyment in Tomie

Shweta Khilnani

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Chapter 2 Eat, Sleep, Read, Repeat: Excess and Enjoyment in Tomie

In: Serial Killers and Serial Spectators

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Shweta Khilnani

Shweta Khilnani
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 56–69

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004692800_004

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Abstract

Junji Ito’s Tomie is a popular Japanese horror manga series which narrates the story of Tomie, a charming girl who is brutally killed and regenerates endlessly. If the basic premise of the storyline remains unchanged, why do people invest their time and energy in consuming this series? This issue is exacerbated by the obvious gruesomeness of the way she is killed that evoke the abject monstrosity of the female body. How does the act of repetitive reading/viewing influence the audience’s response to such graphic accounts of bodies being mutilated? The chapter argues that Tomie embodies an ineffable excess or surplus, manifested through its serial aesthetic, which is manifested both in the creative processes and the reading practices engendered by them. More specifically, the storytelling devices and formal techniques of representation which are seminal to the serial narrative model facilitate repetitive readings, produce a subversive form of enjoyment in the readers. Using a psychoanalytical framework, this chapter will explore seriality through the Lacanian concept of enjoyment.

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Serial Killers and Serial Spectators

Cultures, Narratives, and Representations

Series: Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, Volume: 107

Cover Serial Killers and Serial Spectators

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004692800

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 30 Nov 2023

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Criticism & Theory
  - Comparative Studies & World Literature

Front Matter

Part 1 Seriality of Violence

Part 2 Moral Panics and Murderous Sublime

Part 3 Transnational Evil of Banality

Part 4 Spacetime of Violence

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Chapter 2 Eat, Sleep, Read, Repeat: Excess and Enjoyment in Tomie

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Serial Killers and Serial Spectators

Cultures, Narratives, and Representations

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