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Emotional attachment : emotions and gender in Japanese conservatives’ pursuit of ontological security
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Dingley, Katie (2020) Emotional attachment : emotions and gender in Japanese conservatives’ pursuit of ontological security. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3492201~S15
Abstract
This research is a study of the way in which emotions have worked to allay Japanese conservatives’ anxieties over the “destruction” of “true” Japanese national identity since 1945 – and particularly since circa 1989 – by performatively producing a virtuous masculine Japan. By viewing their identity concerns through the lens of ontological security theory, I establish the requirement for their Japanese national identity to appear stable and fixed, and virtuous masculine in its nature. At its core, the thesis argues that the linguistic and visual representation of emotions is key to quelling conservative anxieties through (re)producing their national identity in three locations: domestic contestations over Japanese national identity with “anti-Japanese” Japanese, and in relations with North Korea and South Korea. In each case it is demonstrated how the removal, minimisation or maximisation of emotions is central to conservatives’ pursuit of ontological security through their removal, minimisation, or maximisation working to write feminised or hypermasculinised Others against which a virtuous masculine Japan can be produced.
The core contribution of this thesis is how emotions function as a key resource in the pursuit of ontological security, establishing how attachments to emotions and national identities are mutually constitutive thus moving our understanding of the role of each in world politics forwards. Gendered understandings/meaning is shown to be central to what emotions need to work to (re)produce stable meaning of. In terms of approaches to Japan’s politics and international relations, this research places oft-cited but underanalysed emotional dynamics in Japanese foreign and security policy at the foreground of its analysis, challenging extant approaches to drivers of Japanese policy and what is meant by security.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DS Asia J Political Science > JC Political theory |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Japanese -- Ethnic identity, Japanese -- Race identity, Nationalism -- Japan, Japan -- Ethnic relations -- Political aspects | ||||
Official Date: | June 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Hughes, Christopher W. ; Vaughan-Williams, Nick | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick. Department of Politics and International Studies ; Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation ; Japan Foundation Endowment Committee ; British Association for Japanese Studies | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 318 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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