Javier Perez Jara

CCS Faculty Fellow Javier Pérez-Jara is pleased to announce the publication of two new contributions in cultural sociology:

* “José Ortega y Gasset, salvador de España. (José Ortega y Gasset, Savior of Spain.)” in Heterodoxos: Diez personajes incómodos de la España del siglo XX (Heterodox: Ten Uncomfortable Figures of 20th-Century Spain), edited by Emilia Landaluce (Penguin Random House, 2025). 

Pérez-Jara’s chapter explores the role of Ortega y Gasset—arguably the most important Spanish philosopher of the 20th century—as a dramatic intellectual. It analyzes how he skillfully employed compelling narratives grounded in radical binary codes that engaged mass audiences, portraying himself as the sole savior capable of rescuing Spain from impending darkness. Pérez-Jara examines Ortega’s contribution to the construction of the cultural traumas surrounding both the “Disaster of 1898” and the Spanish monarchy, showing how his narratives of national decline continue to resonate today. The chapter also analyzes how Ortega’s later, more nuanced use of binaries eventually alienated polarized audiences, contributing to his fall from grace as a public intellectual.

* “Naraku Through the Eyes of Lord Bertrand Russell” in Naraku. Discord, Dysfunction, Dystopia, edited by Christopher Craig and Olga Kopylova (Mimesis International, 2025).

In Japanese Buddhism, naraka refers to temporary hells where souls suffer for past misdeeds. Over time, in Japanese society the concept was secularized into naraku, used to describe real-world catastrophes such as the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, many Japanese use the term naraku metaphorically, apparently detached from its original Buddhist connotations.

The embodiments of naraku that most Japanese think about are less drastic than a global apocalypse. However, lurking in the shadows of many Japanese collective imaginaries, the fear of a worldwide, unprecedented naraku remains. The darkest episodes of the 20th century could be interpreted as glimpses or open windows to the total naraku that is coming: an abyss that seems to portend humankind’s final night. 

Pérez-Jara’s chapter offers a cultural-sociological analysis of how Bertrand Russell came to be regarded as one of the most iconic prophetic figures of nuclear naraku in the 20th century — albeit at the cost of downplaying the devastating impact of firebombing campaigns on civilian populations during World War II, and specifically trivializing the suffering and deaths of Japanese civilians under American air raids. Through his writings and activism, Russell positioned himself as the most important voice articulating the dread of global annihilation, portraying himself as a savior from the apocalypse if humanity were to embrace his prescriptions. His case exemplifies how dramatic intellectuals shape cultural imaginaries of total catastrophe, drawing on an ancient tradition of prophetic discourse.