Current projects include: 

Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies: 'Literature After .11'

June 1, 2017

Pembroke College, Oxford

Organiser:  Dr Linda Flores

Summary: More than five years on from the devastation of the Great Eastern Earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima crisis, the future for many of those affected by the disaster remains unclear. Authors and cultural critics have penned numerous responses to these traumatic events, and this symposium considers the state of Japanese literature written about or in reaction to 3.11. The symposium will interrogate issues related to the crises including but not limited to the following: How have writers and cultural critics responded to 3.11? How can we best define the category of shinsaigo bungaku (post-disaster literature)? Is there a new post 3.11 set of ethics that has emerged in the aftermath of these crises? How has the literary world changed since 3.11? What is the role of literature in the wake of trauma? The symposium will be held at Pembroke College, University of Oxford on June 1, 2017. The Keynote Speaker will be Ikezawa Natsuki.

TANAKA SYMPOSIUM IN JAPANESE STUDIES

‘Literature after 3.11’

Harold Lee Room
Pembroke College, University of Oxford

1st June 2017 Programme Schedule

09.00-10.00: Keynote Speech. Natsuki Ikezawa (Akutagawa Prize-Winning Author)

10.00-10.30: 3.11 and Tōhoku Literature. Linda Flores (University of Oxford)

10.30-10.45: Break

10.45-11.15: Animal Stories: Agency after Radiation. Douglas Slaymaker (University of Kentucky)

11.15-11.45: The Hauntology of Post-disaster Literature. Saeko Kimura (Tsuda College, Tokyo)

11.45-12.15: Humanism and the Hikari-Event: Reading Ōe with Stengers, in Catastrophic

Times. Margherita Long (University of California at Irvine) 12.30-13.30: Lunch

13.30-14.00: History before Memory: Some Reflections on History as Fiction in Post- Fukushima. Anne Bayard-Sakai (INALCO, Paris)

14.00-14.30: Border-crossing Literature on 3.11: the Case of Tawada Yōko’s Kentōshi (2014). Dan Fujiwara (University of Toulouse)

14.30-15.00: 3.11 Witnesses: Building Collective Memory Through Oral and Written Narratives. Flavia Fulco (Sophia University, Tokyo)

15.00-15.30: Tea break

15.30-16.00: Processing Trauma in Japanese Theatre Responding to ‘3.11’ Barbara Geilhorn (University of Manchester)

16.00-16.30: Various Shades of Fury: Criticism of ‘System’ and Society in Japanese Post- Fukushima Literature. Lisette Gebhardt (Goethe University, Frankfurt)

16.30-17.00: The Nuclear Home and the Alien Village: The Production of Post-3.11 Space in Sakate Yōji’s Tatta hitori no sensō. Justine Wiesinger (Yale University)

There will be a Drinks Reception following the symposium from 18.00-19.00 at the SCR Parlour. All are invited to attend.
*Registration for the event is not required.

Organiser: Dr Linda Flores (Associate Professor in Modern Japanese Literature, Pembroke College and Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford);
Co-organiser: Filippo Cervelli, DPhil student (Pembroke College, Oxford)

The Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies is made possible by a grant from the Tanaka UK Japan Education Foundation, Limited.