Brand-Name People: Commodity Animism in the Gothic Literature, Film and Popular Culture of Japan (Post-War to Present Day)

This interdisciplinary project contests the post-war success story of Japanese capitalism at the level of lived
experience, tracking the manipulation and exploitation of consumers by commodities imbued with the illusion of
life. In doing so, it makes an original contribution to criticism of materiality and spirituality under capitalism in
Japan, specifically the ways in which neoliberal economic and social models are articulated and interrogated by
Gothic cultural forms-a combination yet to be addressed under the banner of commodity animism in English
language scholarship.
R