This thesis examines the embodiment of the sexed body and the struggle of fitting into the narrow frames of what a woman is supposed to behave and look like in Japanese cinema. Using the medium of film, I, therefore, seek to produce knowledge regarding the internalized gaze of the oppressor, and self-objectification, caused by the capitalist heteropatriarchy. Thus, I am drawing from cyborg feminism, and the second wave of sexual difference theory’s concept of becoming, expanded upon by the Italian-Australian philosopher Rosi Braidotti. I further use the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of masculine domination and the American philosopher Gayle Rubin’s charmed circle, in creating a theoretical framework, and using the methods of cultural and feminist film analysis to contextualize the films and locate the subjectification of the women. The movies that I will be analyzing are the Japanese director and poet Sion Sono’s Antiporno (アンチポルノ, 2016) and the Japanese director and photographer Mika Ninagawa’s Helter Skelter (ヘルタースケルター, 2012), which both center around two women and their struggle in becoming-cyborg, in relation to power, trauma, sexuality, technology, and beauty ideals in ‘modernized’ Japan. In that sense, I will study the phenomenon of operating outside the lines of social norms of femininity and desire.

Ce mémoire se penche sur l’absurde dans les oeuvres de deux mangakas de l’après Deuxième Guerre mondiale, soit Tsuge Yoshiharu（つげ義春） et Sasaki Maki（佐々木マキ）. Cette étude comparative approche l’absurde comme expérience et tente de penser l’écho que le concept a pu ou non avoir chez les auteurs en question. Pour ce faire, une exploration de divers courants underground des années 50 et 60 au Japon (culture kasutori, nouvelle vague japonaise et avant-garde) est menée afin de retracer comment ceux-ci auraient éventuellement influencés les oeuvres des auteurs analysées, elles-mêmes s’inscrivant dans la culture manga underground de l’époque. Cette section sert également de point d’appui afin de réfléchir sur la place que l’absurde aurait pu prendre au sein de la société japonaise, voyant ses fondements basculer à l’aube de la défaite et contrainte à coopérer sous tutelle américaine. C’est dans cette optique que nous proposons une lecture de l’oeuvre culte de Tsuge Yoshiharu, Nejishiki (ねじ式) comme exprimant une nostalgie propre à une « sensibilité absurde », telle que théorisée par Camus, via le motif de la réparation du corps. Parallèlement à ceci, nous nous attarderons à l’oeuvre de Sasaki Maki au coeur de laquelle le nansensu, compris comme interjection ainsi que référence au courant de l’ero-guro-nansensu, s’érige. À la suite de quoi, nous conclurons sur une comparaison entre les deux expressions de l’absurde chez les mangakas étudiés de manière à dégager, également, ce qui différencie le nansensu de l’absurde. / This text focuses on the artwork of two mangakas of the post Second World War, Tsuge Yoshiharu（つげ義春） and Sasaki Maki（佐々木マキ）. This comparative study investigates the absurd through its experimental component and tries to think the resonance that the concept might have had (or not ) among the authors cited. To this effect, we will explore diverse movements of the 50’s and 60’s in Japan (kasutori culture, Japanese new wave and avant-garde) in order to retrace how they might have eventually influenced the works of the mangakas analysed, themselves being part of an underground culture in the manga community of the time. This section also serves as a starting point for reflecting on the place that the absurd had in the Japanese society of that era, the country being recently defeated and obliged to cooperate under the American occupation which will bring profound changes to the society. It’s in the same vein that we propose a reading of Tsuge Yoshiharu’s masterpiece, Nejishiki (ねじ式), as expressing a nostalgia specific to what Camus calls an « absurd sensibility » through the motive of a body in search of repair. Alternatively, we will analyse Sasaki Maki’s work in the heart of which nansensu, thought as an interjection and in reference to the movement of the ero-guro-nansensu, is present. Finally, we will conclude on a comparison between the two expressions of the absurd in Tsuge and Sasaki’s respective work in order, as well, to elucidate what distinguishes nansensu from the absurd.