Toxic Love: the Interplay of Productivity and Seduction in Postcapitalist Societies

Abstract This study observes the emergence of what might be labeled “toxic love” in contemporary societies increasingly succumbing to the logic of postcapitalism as the new historical paradigm: unhealthy but not yet abusive, toxic love permeates gradually vast areas of our lives, inconspicuously seductive in its productive awakening of humans’ deepest needs, longings, fears. After the theoretical exploration of the phenomenon of toxic love drawing on neuroscientific and medical resources as well as on findings from humanities and social sciences, and the elucidation of its key-manifestations in real life – e.g., performative empathy, compulsive consumerism, and instant gratification –, the investigation zooms in on a case study, in a mixed-methodological approach (ethnographic description and hermeneutic interpretation): Japan’s Takarazuka Revue is scrutinized as an exemplification of toxic love avant-la-lettre , with a particular focus on its three most successful performances since mid-1970s (when the Asian nation unofficially entered its postcapitalist stage after 1973’s oil crisis) – The Rose of Versailles, Gone with the Wind , and Elisabeth: The Rondo of Love and Death –, their world-premieres and their latest re-iterations in recent years.