Visualisation and knowledge production in international relations: The role of emotions and identity

Emotions, and linked national identity, play a significant role in how we make sense of the world and in knowledge production in international relations. How we understand international relations is also shaped by our emotions and identity through their role in sense and meaning making of visual representation, such as political cartoons. This article analyses how political cartoons with portrayals of interstate relations are interpreted, and which emotions and elements of national identity are evoked and give meaning to interpretations. Cartoons from US media were shown to US and German viewers. In a two-stage process, viewers addressed evoked emotions and then critically discussed emotions, identity and representations. Focusing on commonalities and differences in how viewers read and felt visual content, the article enables insights on how emotions and identity add to knowledge production in international relations and how they do so differently with viewers of different identity backgrounds