Revisiting the Past: A Discursive Psychological Approach to Anglo-Japanese Reconciliation Over the Second World War
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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Revisiting the Past : A Discursive Psychological Approach to Anglo-Japanese Reconciliation Over the Second World War. / Murakami, Kyoko.
Discourse, peace and conflict: Discursive Psychology Perspectives. ed. / Stephen Gibson. Springer, 2018. p. 149-166 (Peace psychology book series).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Revisiting the Past
T2 - A Discursive Psychological Approach to Anglo-Japanese Reconciliation Over the Second World War
AU - Murakami, Kyoko
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Reconciliation is a ubiquitous social phenomenon, woven into the fabric of everyday lives. It is emblematic of the human condition in post-conflict societies. In this chapter, I will present a positioning analysis of the discursive practice of reconciliation occasioned in accounts produced by British Second World War veterans, who were interned as prisoners of war in a Japanese labour camp. The positioning analysis is aimed at examining ways in which autobiographical accounts of the past produced in research interviews with several surviving British veterans in the 1990s mobilize relevant identities and membership categories within social relations. Drawing on a case of post-Second World War Anglo-Japanese reconciliation (Murakami, 2012), I shall argue that reconciliation is therefore discursively accomplished in the interview talk as the participants—the veterans and the researcher—attend to the delicate issues of post-war animosity against the Japanese. The analytical focus of discursive reconciliation is on social accountability (Buttny, 1993). It is a feature of reconciliation talk in which people actively demonstrate their ability to recast the pejorative significance of past action, repair the broken, and restore the estranged. The discursive approach to reconciliation illustrated in the chapter sheds light onto, and challenges, the core assumptions made in peace psychology and conflict resolution research. In taking a critical stance, I will highlight the assumptions endemic in peace psychology and mainstream approaches to conflict resolution research and propose reconciliation not as an interior phenomenon, but as social practices situated within the discursive community, being observable within communicative activities in an Anglo-Japanese cross-cultural setting.
AB - Reconciliation is a ubiquitous social phenomenon, woven into the fabric of everyday lives. It is emblematic of the human condition in post-conflict societies. In this chapter, I will present a positioning analysis of the discursive practice of reconciliation occasioned in accounts produced by British Second World War veterans, who were interned as prisoners of war in a Japanese labour camp. The positioning analysis is aimed at examining ways in which autobiographical accounts of the past produced in research interviews with several surviving British veterans in the 1990s mobilize relevant identities and membership categories within social relations. Drawing on a case of post-Second World War Anglo-Japanese reconciliation (Murakami, 2012), I shall argue that reconciliation is therefore discursively accomplished in the interview talk as the participants—the veterans and the researcher—attend to the delicate issues of post-war animosity against the Japanese. The analytical focus of discursive reconciliation is on social accountability (Buttny, 1993). It is a feature of reconciliation talk in which people actively demonstrate their ability to recast the pejorative significance of past action, repair the broken, and restore the estranged. The discursive approach to reconciliation illustrated in the chapter sheds light onto, and challenges, the core assumptions made in peace psychology and conflict resolution research. In taking a critical stance, I will highlight the assumptions endemic in peace psychology and mainstream approaches to conflict resolution research and propose reconciliation not as an interior phenomenon, but as social practices situated within the discursive community, being observable within communicative activities in an Anglo-Japanese cross-cultural setting.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - reconciliation
KW - remembering
KW - discourse
KW - peace psychoogy
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-99094-1
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-99094-1
M3 - Book chapter
T3 - Peace psychology book series
SP - 149
EP - 166
BT - Discourse, peace and conflict: Discursive Psychology Perspectives
A2 - Gibson, Stephen
PB - Springer
ER -
ID: 213561052