I'm every woman. Hayashi Mariko verso un nuovo modello di donna nel Giappone contemporaneo

Hayashi Mariko is a prominent figure in the Japanese literary scene and, thanks to her massive presence in tv shows, is considered a celebrity. Yet, by the time of her debut in 1982, she criticized the world of massmedia for having created an image of the perfect woman which, according to her, was far from reality. Proposing herself as a model, Hayashi creates heroines who reveal what she believes are the true colors of women. In this article, I shall propose an analysis of selected works in order to demonstrate how the inclusion of the autobiographical element in her plots contributed creating a brand-new heroine far from being perfect but in whom the female reader may easily identify and that seems to anticipate what will become the prototype of the protagonists of the genre of chick lit, the everywoman who will appear for the first time in mid-Nineties, contributing to the creation of her success.