Images, emotions, and international politics: the death of Alan Kurdi

How are images, emotions, and international politics connected? This article develops a theoretical framework contributing to visuality and emotions research in International Relations. Correcting the understanding that images cause particular emotional responses, this article claims that emotionall...

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Veröffentlicht in:	Review of international studies Jg. 46; H. 1; S. 75 - 95
Hauptverfasser:	Adler-Nissen, Rebecca, Andersen, Katrine Emilie, Hansen, Lene
Format:	Journal Article
Sprache:	Englisch
Veröffentlicht:	London Cambridge University Press 01.01.2020
Schlagworte:	Boating accidents & safety Death & dying Discourse Discourses Emotional responses Emotionality Emotions Foreign policy Grief Imagery International relations Kurdish people Mental states Migration Performativity Photography Political discourse Political leadership Politics Prime ministers Refugees Social media Canada Turkey United Kingdom > UK United States > US Europe
ISSN:	0260-2105, 1469-9044
Online-Zugang:	Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:	How are images, emotions, and international politics connected? This article develops a theoretical framework contributing to visuality and emotions research in International Relations. Correcting the understanding that images cause particular emotional responses, this article claims that emotionally laden responses to images should be seen as performed in foreign policy discourses. We theorise images as objects of interpretation and contestation, and emotions as socially constituted rather than as individual ‘inner states’. Emotional bundling – the coupling of different emotions in discourse – helps constitute political subjectivities that both politicise and depoliticise. Through emotional bundling political leaders express their experiences of feelings shared by all humans, and simultaneously articulate themselves in authoritative and gendered subject positions such as ‘the father’. We illustrate the value of our framework by analysing the photographs of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian-Kurdish boy who drowned in September 2015. ‘Kurdi’ became an instant global icon of the Syrian refugee crisis. World leaders expressed their personal grief and determination to act, but within a year, policies adopted with direct reference to Kurdi's tragic death changed from an open-door approach to attempts to stop refugees from arriving. A discursive-performative approach opens up new avenues for research on visuality, emotionality, and world politics.
Bibliographie:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14
ISSN:	0260-2105 1469-9044
DOI:	10.1017/S0260210519000317