Down in a Hole : Dark Tourism, Haunted Places as Affective Meshworks, and the Obliteration of Korean Laborers in Contemporary Kyoto
Bibliographic Information
- Other Title
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- 洞穴の中で : ダークツーリズムと感情のメッシュワークとしての心霊スポット、現代京都で抹消された朝鮮人労働者の存在
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Abstract
This article provides an analysis of the relation between tourists’ experiences, affect, and bodily perceptions, together with processes of remembering and forgetting, focusing on (dark) touristic practices in haunted places in contemporary Japan. It highlights the social features of oblivion, processes in the creation of memories and discourses of war, and their entanglement in the “meshwork” that constitutes a particular place. I draw on ethnographic data of a guided ghost tour that visits Kiyotaki Tunnel, one of the most renowned haunted places in Kyoto. I describe tourists’ experiences, analyze the rumors about the haunting, and show that, among the locals, memories of the death of and discrimination against Korean laborers in the tunnel were strategically forgotten. Yet, these memories were “unearthed,” appropriated and spread on the internet by visitors, attracted by the haunting. I point out that haunted places emerge as “affective meshworks” primarily as a result of bodily correspondences with affordances in the environment, rather than from narrative and belief, and that (dark) touristic practices can contribute to the construction of new discourses, thus unsettling power relationships. I argue that a focus on affect in shaping meshworks of bodies, environments, memories, and discourses through (dark) touristic practices, can provide an understanding of the experiences of visitors to places related to war and death, and that visitors contribute to the construction of new memories and discourses.
Journal
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- Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies
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Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies 33 271-297, 2019
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
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Keywords
Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1390853649776861568
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- NII Article ID
- 120006599772
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- NII Book ID
- AA10759175
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- ISSN
- 24343129
- 09150986
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- NDL BIB ID
- 029694004
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- Text Lang
- en
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- Data Source
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- JaLC
- IRDB
- NDL
- CiNii Articles
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- Abstract License Flag
- Allowed