Supernatural Beings in Japanese Literature and Comics

This bachelor thesis shows the development of depicting supernatural beings in Japanese literature and comics. The thesis analyses three supernatural beings - fox (kitsune), racoon dog (tanuki) and goblin (tengu) in three time periods - Middle Ages, Early modern period and present days. Middle Age literature is covered by collection of setsuwa legends, Early modern literature by writings of kibyoshi genre and Present days by japanese comics published after the year 2000. The aim of the first part of the thesis is to briefly outline the development of depicting of the supernatural beings and introduce analysed beings. Second part deals with analysis of the individual characters. Methodology is analysis and comparation of the Literary Characters in the context of Structural Narratology