The Antics Of The Virtual: The Otherness In The Self In The Japanese Expression, “Nanchatte” (なんちゃって.）

The Japanese gag expression,“nanchatte” would be the equivalent of the English expression, “Just kidding.” Its successful execution would “crack up” people, take the edge off from an impression of formality, arrogance, aggression, austerity, or bluntness, break the ice, mitigate face-threat or potential embarrassment, keep its meaning ambiguous, and produce other similar performative effects. In this presentation, Miyako Inoue will discuss how nanchatte, as pragmatic and as frivolous as it may seem, affords a profound space of theory about the production of the other within the self.