Thai Yuri/Girls Love Novels as Popular Fiction: A Case Study of 23.5 When the Earth Spinning Around
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Abstract
Background and Objectives: Since the late 2010s, gender and sexual diversity in Thailand has emerged as a socio-political force and significant material for creative writing and media production. Until the early 2020s, yuri works, commonly known as Girls Love (hereafter, GL), depicting female homoeroticism, developed alongside Boys Love (BL) or Y (Yaoi), which has been prominent in both media and academic discourse. This research thus aimed to analyze Thai yuri/GL works as popular fiction by focusing on their characteristics and positionality within popular culture with reference to Blue’s 23.5 When the Earth Spinning Around as a case study.
Methods: This research is classified as qualitative research. The Thai yuri or GL novels were analyzed by close reading with a linkage to the popular culture appearing in the novels, and the framework of popular fiction studies, proposed by Bernice Mary Murphy, was applied.
Results: The analysis of 23.5 When the Earth Spinning Around in comparison to the convention of Japanese yuri with the convention of girls’ school revealed that the definition and scope of the works of two cultures are synchronized. The plot serves as the primary driving force of the text, adhering to the convention of popular romance. In terms of character design, like the popular Japanese yuri, Thai yuri/GL works do not depict the tachi/neko dichotomy, which aligns with the butch/femme manifestation. The novel, instead, reinterprets the ojōsama/moekko trope from Japanese yuri. The novel restricts the expression of love between characters to kisses and touches. The novel transforms the trope of a girls’ school into a coeducational school, symbolizing the conflict between heteronormativity and female homosexuality, which is, however, embraced by the girls’ community in school. The yuri novel offers hope for a change in social reality through queer optimism. When locating the novel within popular culture, it demonstrates that yuri is a popular fiction, widely accessible through online platforms and bookshop chains. Literary festivals are likewise an intersection of yuri in the literary industry, screen culture, and fan culture.
Application of this study: The research findings are beneficial to the study of Thai yuri, or GL, in the literary and media industries. It also serves as a foundation for the study of Thai popular fiction of different genres and works of women authors.
Conclusions: A study of Thai yuri/GL novels as popular fiction reaffirms their alignment with Bernice Mary Murphy’s ideas of popular fiction in terms of the generic classification, literary formulas, and readership. Furthermore, business and technology incubate this cluster of works. In the context of popular culture and the commercialism of the genre, 23.5 When the Earth Spinning Around adopts the generic convention of a girls’ school in Japanese yuri, paralleling the spirit of activism in Thailand since 2020. Thai yuri/GL novels are situated in convergence culture and the creation of yuri couples through the coupling practices within the fan/industry interaction, which have been inspired by the Thai BL’s success since the 2010s, in terms of the industrial implementation. The research findings should serve as a foundation for future research on Thai yuri/GL and popular culture in Thailand, as well as from transnational sources.
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