The Blur of Modernity: Essentialism, Affect and Everyday Life in Tokyo
The Blur of Modernity: Essentialism, Affect and Everyday Life in Tokyo Tobia Farnetti University Colle e London !e"artment of Anthropology Thesis submitted for the de ree of !octor of #hiloso"hy $#hD% &'() 1 2 Declaration I, Tobia Farnetti, confirm that the +ork "resented in this thesis is my o+n, -here information has been derived from other sources, * confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 4 ABSTRACT This thesis e."lores the constitutive role that cultural essentialism "lays in the everyday life of /a"anese urban modernity, 0tartin from the ethno ra"hic observation that essentialised ideas of 1/a"an2 and 1the /a"anese2 are not only fruit of an orientalisin anthro"olo ical aze but also a "rime indi enous concern, * aim to "lace my analysis as a 1third +ay2 between those ethno ra"hies that employ essentialism as method and those +ho handle it as an ob4ect of criti5ue, The e."eriment is to re6frame essentialism as the ethno ra"hic ob4ect under scrutiny 6 as a livin and breathin presence in the lives of peo"le in Tokyo The main ar ument uidin the thesis is that lookin at essentialised social cate ories one does find its essentialised version 7 e, , family structure understood as timeless and constitutively /a"anese 7 but also, to ether +ith it, +hat is understood as its ne ative 7 e, , a fluid chan in family structure movin +ith history, mi ration to the urban centres, -esternisation and the life of the city, 8ne does find stron binaries 7 e, , old and ne+, /a"anese and forei n, traditional and modern 7 and yet it is not throu h one of its e.tremes that essentialised social forms are lived and understood, but in between them.
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