Empire of hope : the sentimental politics of Japanese decline

How do emotions become meaningful in public life? Closely examining key episodes in Japanese politics, __Empire of Hope__ examines the varied roles that feelings play in contemporary politics. They construct the boundaries of the national body, they inform and discipline appropriate expression, and they depoliticize messy problems that could quickly produce divisive questions about winners and losers. And most important, they work because they appear to be so natural: the simple and expected expression of how the nation shares feelings, even when they paper over the extraordinary divergence in how the nation’s members experience each incident. By emphasizing the embeddedness of emotional expression in national narratives, the book challenges recent arguments in the social sciences and humanities about role that emotions should play in political analysis. A unique array of case studies — from the medical treatment of two Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange to the global promotion of Japanese popular culture, and from a tragic maritime accident involving a US Navy submarine to the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster — illustrates the myriad ways in which political expression of feelings matter even as they are divorced from the messiness of people’s emotional lives.

Empire of Hope asks how emotions become meaningful in political life. In a diverse array of cases from recent Japanese history, David Leheny shows how sentimental portrayals of the nation and its global role reflect a durable story of hopefulness about the country's postwar path. From the medical treatment of conjoined Vietnamese children, victims of Agent Orange, the global promotion of Japanese popular culture, a tragic maritime accident involving a US Navy submarine, to the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, this story has shaped the way in which political figures, writers, officials, and observers have depicted what the nation feels.

Expressions of national emotion do several things: they construct the boundaries of the national body, they inform and discipline appropriate expression, and they depoliticize messy problems that threaten to produce divisive questions about winners and losers. Most important, they work because they appear to be natural, simple and expected expressions of how the nation shares feeling, even when they paper over the extraordinary divergence in how the nation's citizens experience each incident. In making its arguments, Empire of Hope challenges how we read the relations between emotion and politics by arguing—unlike those who build from the neuroscientific turn in the social sciences or those developing affect theory in the humanities—that the focus should be on emotional representation rather than on emotion itself.

Empire of Hope asks how emotions become meaningful in political life. In a diverse array of cases from recent Japanese history, David Leheny shows how sentimental portrayals of the nation and its global role reflect a durable story of hopefulness about the country's postwar path. From the medical treatment of conjoined Vietnamese children, victims of Agent Orange, the global promotion of Japanese popular culture, a tragic maritime accident involving a US Navy submarine, to the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, this story has shaped the way in which political figures, writers, officials, and observers have depicted what the nation feels. Expressions of national emotion do several things: they construct the boundaries of the national body, they inform and discipline appropriate expression, and they depoliticize messy problems that threaten to produce divisive questions about winners and losers. Most important, they work because they appear to be natural, simple and expected expressions of how the nation shares feeling, even when they paper over the extraordinary divergence in how the nation's citizens experience each incident. In making its arguments, Empire of Hope challenges how we read the relations between emotion and politics by arguing—unlike those who build from the neuroscientific turn in the social sciences or those developing affect theory in the humanities—that the focus should be on emotional representation rather than on emotion itself. Examines A Collection Of Cases From Japan That Demonstrate How Scholars Should Use Narrative Theory To Understand The Relationships Between Emotions And Political Life-- Maybe They Will Smile Back -- Souls Of The Ehime Maru -- Cheer Up, Vietnam -- Cool Optimism -- Staging The Empire Of Light -- The Peripheral U-turn -- Everything Sinks. David Leheny. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 195-220) And Index. "Examines a collection of cases from Japan that demonstrate how scholars should use narrative theory to understand the relationships between emotions and political life"-- Provided by publisher