The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

My methods for compensating for a lack of material on the Japanese
Lolita subculture are highlighted in the Methodology section. Though, as my
thesis attempts to build on this topic as a new field of research, I relish this
gap in that I have the opportunity to contribute to it. The frameworks that I
use as vehicles to construct my own theories and analyses about the Lolita
phenomenon are areas of study that are more established.
In relation to the significance of doll culture in Japan the expert is Alan
Scott Pate. His comprehensive research is represented in two major
publications: Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyō (2008); and Ningyō:
The Art of the Japanese Doll (2005). These books discuss not only the history
of Japanese dolls, types of dolls and methods of manufacture, but also
explain the superstitions, rituals and customs of the Japanese people in
relation to the doll. Psychological relationships between the Japanese people
and dolls are also explored in two sound academic journal articles: Ellen
Schattschneider’s “The Bloodstained Doll” (2005); and Angelika
Kretschmer’s “Mortuary Rites for Inanimate Objects” (2000). Another
historic account of Japanese doll traditions, originally written in 1912, is F.
H. Davis’ Myths and Legends of Japan (1992). Both Pate and Davis refer to the
seminal work of Lafcadio Hearn who published on the subject in 1894. For
an investigation into more contemporary views about dolls, doll collections,
and people’s attachments to them, not only in Japan but worldwide, I
consult Woodrow Pheonix’s Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the
World (2006); and Susan Pearce’s On Collecting (1995).
Page | 32