<論文>大正期婦人雑誌読者にみる女性読書形態 : 『主婦之友』にみる読者像

Abstract

This paper aims to reconsider the activeness of women's reading in the Taisho era. Women readers have been said to be of two types: one type had an active way of reading, the other's was passive. The former were called "new women" and read magazines of liberal views, including "Fuzin Koron". In contrast, the latter type of reader read popular magazines for women with a large circulation, including "Shufu no Tomo". These magazines acted as an instructional apparatus to help women accept the norm that they had to become "good wives and wise mothers" for the preservation of the Japanese national system. However, was the second type of readers so passive? In contemporary research, the activeness of audience in responding to media is pointed out. Audiences don't only "receive" information by mass media, but also "read" media actively. I would like to apply this discussion to female readers in the Taisho era, in order to prove that they were already active readers who could choose information and communicate one another.