This book extensively analyzes the literary works of fiction that draw on the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011. This disaster inspired literally hundreds of fictional works in Japan from the time of the events through 2017. This response represents a unique and perhaps unprecedented cultural phenomenon in the world. Since a variety of writers in different genres, and even amateurs, have written and published books inspired by their experiences of the disaster, it is extremely difficult to cover the entire body of Japanese "post-3.11 literature". Because of the breadth of this literary response, there is a scarcity of research on the subject available. This book offers the first comprehensive review of Japan's recent post-disaster literary production to the English audience.
Koichi Haga is associate professor of Japanese and Comparative Literature at Josai International University in Japan.
Acknowledgments Introduction: Overview of Post 3.11 Cultural Production Part I:The Immediate Impact of the 3.11 Disaster on the Writers' Consciousness Chapter One. Ecological Time-Space Emerging from the Encounter with the 3.11 Earthquake and Tsunami: The first phase of Post 3.11 literary production Chapter Two. Fissures Opened in Literary Ground: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Kenzaburo Oe's In Late Style Chapter Three. Animal Agencies in Post-3.11 Literature Part II: Acceleration of the Writers' Ecological Consciousness Chapter Four. Remembrance of Postcolonial Conditions The Earthquake's Disclosure of Uncommon Ground: Tohoku Area as the Other Within Chapter Five. Dystopian Novels Flourish in the Post-3.11 Period Chapter Six. The Emergence of a Planetary Sense Through Geographic Catastrophe Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author
Koichi Haga's study of post-3.11 literature in Japan provides a fascinating and necessary glimpse for western readers into the Japanese experience of ecoprecarity in the wake of one of the most devastating natural-technological disasters in recent memory. While the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear meltdown received widespread attention, the cultural ramifications and interpretations of these events-and the lessons about nuclear risk that we can learn from this predictable and yet unexpected crisis-have scarcely been contemplated outside of Japan. I find this book to be a valuable contribution to risk criticism and ecocriticism. -- Scott Slovic, University of Idaho Haga shows how the massive earthquake of 3-11 unleashed not only a calamitous tsunami and the man-made nuclear disaster of Fukushima, it also shook to the foundations the form and content of contemporary Japanese fiction. Based on extensive research, the book is filled with fascinating insights that reveal the complex ways Japanese writers are reimagining what it means to live as humans on our volatile planet. -- Michael K. Bourdaghs, University of Chicago
