Disaster literature, 13 years on

International symposium organized by Anne Bayard-Sakai (Inalco - Ifrae), Fujiwara Dan (Université de Toulouse - Ifrae), Kimura Saeko (Tsuda University).
Portrait d'une jeune femme dans la rue
金原さん写真1 © Kanehara Hitomi‎

Almost 13 years have passed since the triple disaster of March 2011. During this time, Japan has suffered numerous natural calamities, and on a global scale catastrophic weather phenomena have multiplied due to global warming. At the same time, the world experienced the Covid epidemic, the resulting restrictions on movement and the reassertion of state logics. No sooner had the epidemic been brought under control than Russian troops attacked the Ukraine, and today, at the end of 2023, all eyes are on the Middle East. It's as if the world has gone from the silence of the pandemic to the terrible crashes of war.

In these times when disasters seem to accumulate, from triple catastrophe to pandemic to war, this meeting will explore the discourses that Japanese literature can offer - and the questions that then arise for research in the field.

Program

March 29, 2024

Morning

  • 9:45am-10am: opening of the symposium by Anne BAYARD-SAKAI (Inalco IFRAE)

Moderator: Doug SLAYMAKER (University of Kentucky)

  • 10am-10:20am: Amy WEI (Cornell University) - (Im)possible Lives, (In)visible Stakes: The (Ir)radiated World of Tawada Yōko's Chikyū ni chiribamerarete
  • 10:20-10:40am: NAGAMINE Yuki (UCLA) - Thinking Pollution Transhistorically: Representation of Porous Bodies in Tawada Yōko's Kentōshi
  • 10:40-11am : discussion

11h-11h20: coffee break

  • 1h20-11h40: Shelby OXENFORD (University of Texas) - (Re)Making the World in Literature of Disaster
  • 11h40-12h: SOTOME Hayate (University of Tokyo) - Two ruptures and a field of flowers : A pastoral approach to the aftermath of March 11 in Furukawa Hideo's "Arui wa shura no jûoku nen"
    ２つの破局と花畑：古川日出男『あるいは修羅の十億年』におけるポスト3.11パストラル
  • 12h-12h20: discussion

Afternoon

Moderator: KIMURA Saeko (Tsuda University)

  • 14h-14h20: FUJIWARA Dan (Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès) - On the eve of catastrophe: when from disaster comes a translator
    『カタストロフ前夜』：震災が生んだ翻訳者
  • 14h20 - 14h40: SHINJÔ Naohiro (University of Tokyo) - Being concerned by disaster and the imaginary of the foreign country: autour de "Kai ni tsuzuku basho nite" de Ishizawa Mai
    震災をめぐる当事者性と異国の想像力 石沢麻依『貝に続く場所にて』を中心に
  • 14h40-15h : Anne BAYARD-SAKAI (Inalco-Ifrae) - Does post-March 11 literature have an end?
    3.11 後文学に終焉はあるのか
  • 15h-15h30: discussion

15h30-16h: coffee break

  • 16h - 16h20: KIMURA Saeko (Tsuda University) - Reading Kanehara Hitomi from post-Fukushima to COVID novels
  • 16h20- 18h: meeting with KANEHARA Hitomi - Writing novels in times of disaster
    災厄 の時代に小説を書くこと

March 30, 2024

Matinee

Moderator: FUJIWARA Dan (Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès IFRAE)

  • 10am-10.20am: ARAI Takako (Saitama University) -Describing nature, life, their catastrophes through dialogues: an account from a poetry practitioner
    対話から自然、人生、そのカタストロフを描くー詩の実作者からの報告
  • 10:20-10:40: Annabel WEI (University of Tokyo) - Connecting the forgotten of "reconstruction" - A reading of Tsushima Yûko's "Yamaneko Dômu"
    「復興」に取り残された者たちを繋いでー津島佑子『ヤマネコ・ドーム』論
  • 10:40-11am : discussion

11h-11h20: coffee break

  • 11h20-11h40: MOTEGI Aya (Université Paris Cité) -The representation of disaster in post-disaster cinema and the question of (ir)responsibility: à propos de "Kimi no na wa" de Shinkai Maokoto (2016)
    震災後映画における災害表象と（無）責任：新海誠『君の名は』（2016年）を例に
  • 11h40-12h : Christopher SMITH (University of Florida) - The Enemy is Us: Twenty-First Century Anxieties and the Imperial past in Asai Inio's Dead Dead Demons
  • 12h-12h20 : HIGUCHI Yoshizumi (Kantô Gakuin University) - Le départ de la ville comme catastrophe : rethinking the originary experience of Kara Jûrô, playwright and novelist
    カタストロフとしての疎開 劇作家・小説家唐十郎の原点を再考する
  • 12:20-12:50pm: discussion

Afternoon

Moderator: Anne BAYARD-SAKAI (Inalco IFRAE)

  • 2pm-2:20pm: Doug SLAYMAKER (University of Kentucky) - Narrative whirlpools: narrative time in postdisaster fiction
  • 2:20pm-2:40pm: KIM Seungyeon (Osaka Metropolitan University) - Sharing catastrophe and "Japanese-language literature": Tawada Yôko's Higan and imposed exophony
    カタストロフの共有と＜日本語文学＞ー多和田葉子「彼岸」と押し付けられたエクソフォニーを端緒に
  • 14h40-15h : discussion
  • 3pm-4pm: General discussion
  • 4pm: closing remarks by Anne BAYARD-SAKAI, FUJIWARA Dan, KIMURA Saeko