SAKURA OCH HANAMI GENOM HISTORIEN. En diskursanalys av symboliken kring sakura och hanami i japanska tidningsartiklar.

Abstract

The purpose and aim of this thesis has been to examine if there has been any change in the terms sakura and hanami in their relation to Japan under the period stretching from 1918- 2015. The material consists of selected newspaper articles from the two most distributed newspapers in Japan, the Asahi Shinbun and the Yomiuri Shinbun during the period mentioned. By analyzing the articles through a framework of discourse theory, nodal points connected to six different discourses have been identified throughout the period. The results show that the most dominant discourse has been a national/conservative-discourse which is still present. Other discourses have been more time specific, as the monarchic-discourse during the imperialistic Showa-era or the international-discourse during the economic boom in the decades after World War 2. Although the nationalistic/conservative-discourse has been dominant, with time discourses have diversified and five out of six identified discourses are represented in the Heisei-era.