AFFECT AND LETTER-WRITING - UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTIONS IN CASUAL WRITING BY YOUNG JAPANESE WOMEN

With special attention to the use of unconventional practices and pict orial signs in casual letter writing, this article shows how young Jap anese women effectively exploit affect-laden shape, form, and function in order to establish intimate and solidary relationships. They rely on both conventional and unconventional aspects of Japanese orthograph y, encoding affect specific to the given context and merging spoken wi th written modes of self-representation. In so doing, they seem to dra w on diverse ''frames'' of written language, and to manipulate symboli c means of association and integration for achieving reciprocity. Thes e features not only provide the basis for reciprocity, but may also su ggest a new mode of literacy caused by social change.