Adjunct Professor and Senior Researcher at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna. Honorary Fellow at Ca' Foscari University (Venice). Field of study: "literature of the catastrophe" with special emphasis on trauma narrative and memory formation (Shoah literature, atomic bombing literature, post-Fukushima literature; trauma discourse on natural disasters and mass atrocities; psychotraumatologic study; scriptotheraphy investigation). Address: Venice, Italy
DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, 2024
This study investigates the female body and its symbolic deconstruction that occurred following t... more This study investigates the female body and its symbolic deconstruction that occurred following the double atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) as well as the more recent nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant (2011). By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this research explores the legacy of the ryōsai kenbo ('good wife, wise mother') model and how radioactivity exposure disrupted that ideal by transforming radioactivity-contaminated women into 'monsters'. Postfeminist theories on the 'monstrous-feminine' are implemented to read testimonies on radiophobia, starting from Hayashi Kyōko's production, the case study of the Hiroshima Maidens and Sono Sion's movie Land of Hope (2012). The aim is to prove how the radioactivity agency deconstructed the female body as a mere reproductive resource and encouraged an emergent vision of its reconstruction as a woman-individual, claiming her active participation as a social actor.
Tawada Yōko has enjoyed international acclaim in recent years for her eclectic production that ov... more Tawada Yōko has enjoyed international acclaim in recent years for her eclectic production that overcomes ethnic and linguistic barriers to constitute a universal language that is the literary one. This contribution analyzes the poem Hamlet No See (2011?), written in Japanese/English and translated into German by the author, which constitutes a ground for intertextual experimentation through the revival of cross-cultural elements such as Shakespeare's Hamlet.
After a brief introduction related to the role of multilingualism in the expression of psychological trauma, the study aims to investigate how the multilingualism performed by Tawada in her poem can assist in verbalizing the post-Fukushima radiation anxiety in the attempt to overcome the inexplicable.
DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, 2024
The global entertainment world has recently seen an increase in postapocalyptic products, clearly... more The global entertainment world has recently seen an increase in postapocalyptic products, clearly reflecting a public demand for catastrophe-related narratives. This 'catastrophilia' finds a relevant example in the dystopian works by Komatsu Sakyō, one of Japan's most celebrated science fiction authors, beginning with the first novel Nihon chinbotsu (1973). Having become a transmedia product thanks to film, manga, and anime adaptations, the story portrays a fictional version of "The Big One" able to sink the entire Japanese archipelago in an unknown future. What is the reason behind such success? By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective intertwining psychological, philosophical and media studies, this paper examines the popularity achieved by Japan Sinks and its mediascape to unveil the addiction to the apocalyptic narratives that goes beyond the ecotopic purpose of re-establishing a symbiotic contact between humans and the environment. Instead, it results from a pathological desire for violence and death and an atavistic tendency for morbid curiosity.
DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, 2023
In 1961, the Eichmann trial opened in Jerusalem, and its worldwide resonance through media covera... more In 1961, the Eichmann trial opened in Jerusalem, and its worldwide resonance through media coverage questioned the collective conscience about responsibility for Nazi crimes. German philosopher Hannah Arendt attended the process as a special correspondent for the U.S. magazine The New Yorker. Her Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963) caused a great scandal: the author advanced the brazen idea of collective co-responsibility for Nazi crimes, reporting the identikit of a standard bureaucrat, a seemingly ordinary man, just like any one of us. Almost sixty years after its publication, this study adopts a primarily psycho(patho)logical perspective to reflect once again on the considerations Arendt shared in the Banality of Evil. In showing the multiple facets of banality, the research investigates recent results in the analysis of the criminal mind in order to shed light on the etiology of evil.
Introduction to the DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 3 No. 1 (... more Introduction to the DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023). "Täter, Mitläufer, and the Responsibility for Evil" by Veronica De Pieri and Elisa Pontini
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of the world's most successful literary exam... more The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of the world's most successful literary examples of transmediality. Its multiple retellings have ranged from film to animation, amplifying that favorable public and critical response with which the original novella was received. Among them, Shiine Yamato's FUKUSHIMA no ōjisama (2011) stands as a rewriting of Saint-Exupéry's masterpiece in a post-Fukushima key. This study aims to understand the author's reasons for adopting precisely The Little Prince as a source of inspiration to depict childhood marked by the danger of radioactivity and the prevailing radiophobia in the post-nuclear accident scenario. In doing so, the investigation adopts a comparative perspective aimed at highlighting the reasons for continuity and rupture between the two works, as well as a psycho(pato)logical approach interested in analyzing the topoi of otherness, attachment, and mourning that are common of two works, evidence of the self-therapeutic effort of the two authors.
Two years after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or 3.11 as it is more commonly known, Japa... more Two years after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or 3.11 as it is more commonly known, Japanese author Itō Seikō いとうせいこう achieved a resounding success with his novel Sōzō Rajio 想像ラジオ, an atypical story of a radio program whose main protagonists are the deceased. Ten years later, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the disaster, the nonfictional work entitled Fukushima monorōgu 福島モノローグ makes its appearance on the bookshelves. This late publication brings back the voices of the 3.11 survivors in a specular fashion in comparison with the previous work and elicits the misleading juxtaposition of fiction and death, and non-fiction and life. This study explores the representational power of Itō's literature when it comes to mourning death and loss in the wake of the 3.11 disaster. By applying a psychological reading of his works, the article pursues the main objective, which is to investigate the role of literature in dealing with psychological trauma and examine how trauma is represented, thus emphasizing the value attributed by the writer to the victim's mourning voices.
Textual agency plays a fundamental role with regard to the literary production devoted to catastr... more Textual agency plays a fundamental role with regard to the literary production devoted to catastrophic events and the trauma they entail; it raises questions about the ethics of the disaster, as if to say the legitimacy of the literary works on the theme. The authorial commitment to bear witness to the events often clashes with the unrepresentability of the event itself: silence and discursivity are both misleading choices in the sense that the first is a real blot on History, while the latter implies to domesticate trauma in order to transpose it into literary forms. This article aims to give relevance to the therapeutic agency of the Literature of the catastrophe and in doing so, it contributes to the re-evaluation of the genre as part of the literary canon.
Negli ultimi decenni studi di spicotraumatologia clinica associati all’investigazione letteraria ... more Negli ultimi decenni studi di spicotraumatologia clinica associati all’investigazione letteraria hanno evidenziato come la scriptoterapia sia un esercizio terapeutico efficace per combattere i sintomi dell’analfabetismo emozionale, prima risposta di un soggetto sottoposto a forte shock traumatico. Forme testimoniali orali o scritte rappresentano il risultato degli sforzi comunicativi della vittima, di cui il destinatario del messaggio assume un ruolo determinante. La presa di coscienza sociale è infatti fondamentale: la testimonianza da sola non basta per affrontare il trauma esperito e necessita di dialogismo; l’empatia dell’audience - sia essa il semplice psicoanalista - è di primaria importanza per l’elaborazione del trauma e la sua guarigione. Questo breve studio intende dimostrare come la recente risposta letteraria alla triplice catastrofe dell’11 marzo 2011 avvalori l’importanza attribuita al ruolo del lettore dagli studi di psicanalisi applicati al prodotto letterario. La ricerca si snoda in quattro differenti fasi: una prima introduzione agli studi teorici nel campo della scriptoterapia; una seconda sezione che indaga il rapporto tra catastrofe e trauma trasposto in prodotto letterario attraverso la chiave di lettura nota come 3.11 e infine, una selezione di testi che approcciano il tema del Daishinsai e dell’incidente nucleare di Fukushima Daiichi attraverso la pluralità di stili (poetico, fictional e nonfictional) prestando particolare attenzione al target del prodotto letterario e alle dinamiche messe in atto dall’autore per sollecitare la compartecipazione attiva del lettore. Nelle conclusioni si cercherà di evidenziare la validità della teoria scriptoterapica osservando come, indipendentemente dalla diversa natura del prodotto letterario, non è l’autore, bensì il lettore che, attraverso la ricezione e la risposta empatica, consente all’opera testimoniale di diventare tale e attivare così il processo di guarigione dal trauma.
Koi suru genpatsu by Takahashi Genichirō is without doubt one of the most controversial literary ... more Koi suru genpatsu by Takahashi Genichirō is without doubt one of the most controversial literary work in the post-3.11 literary panorama. Apart from the plot based on the filming of a charity AV in the sake of Tohoku victims, this long novel stands out for the provocative literary essay hereby included. In this piece of literary criticism the author stresses the relevance of Kawakami Hiromi’s Kamisama 2011 as a literary response to the anti-nuclear debate which stirred up among Japanese politicians, scientists and also literati soon after the nuclear fallout at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on 11th March 2011. Takahashi’s essay contributes to the evaluation of the literary production on the topic of 3.11 disaster by considering the compelling role the words assumed in the wake of catastrophe; at the same time, this essay provides a gateway to the interpretation of Takahashi’s Koi suru genpatsu, especially taking into account the final scene that concludes the AV as well as the novel: a marasma of human bodies, dead and alive, making love together. A provocative, even naughty image that questions the reader about the ontological meaning of disaster.
January 27, 1945: the Red Army set Auschwitz concentration camp free, making this date the “liber... more January 27, 1945: the Red Army set Auschwitz concentration camp free, making this date the “liberation day” for thousands of inmates, victims of Nazi’s idea of the “master race”. August 15, 1945: Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender on Japanese radio after experienced the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. XX century witnessed two of the most abominable atrocities of human history whose repercussions still affect not only German and Japanese societies, involved at first place, but also individual consciousness too. Over the past decades different studies have been investigating these indelible marks on History on many levels: historical, political, sociological, psychological and even artistic approaches were called into question in the search for the truth about Shoah and atomic bombing catastrophes. This study offers a different perspective on the topic by comparing the poetical responses of two representatives of the so-called Shoah Literature and Atomic Bombing Literature: Primo Levi and Hara Tamiki. Both authors, although the space-related distance and the different nature of the traumatic experiences they witnessed, gave birth to similar poetical responses under the title of Se questo è un uomo (“If this is a man”) and Kore ga ningen na no desu (“This is a human being”). This research sets itself the ambitious goal to demonstrate how, regardless of territorial, cultural and stylistic boundaries, a similar human response toward catastrophe can be detached in the literary productions of Levi and Hara: a comparison on stylistic, figurative and expressive level reveals the analogous literary solutions adopted by the authors to depict human’s frailty in front of trauma. Both authors answer the literary imperative of writing: their commitment unveils the aim to bear witness and to convey memory to the future generations. Words, enriched by authors of allusive and critical meanings, represent an effective and necessary means to keep alive and to preserve the traumatic memory. The literature of the catastrophe, then, becomes a language that unites, rather than divides, different societies. It serves as universal mouthpiece for victim’s experience to prevent Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to happen again.
Kintsugi identifies the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed up w... more Kintsugi identifies the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed up with powdered gold, silver or platinum: the result is a new piece of art whose beauty resides in the emphasis given to the injuries. The surface of the manufacture is crossed by gold and silver sparkling ribs, proud as a knight who shows his wounds. A watchful gaze of the Tohōku area after the 11th March 2011 Daishinsai reflects the kintsugi identity of Japanese society in its full controversy: the evacuees at the refugee camps are still seeking aids from the Japanese government; the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi are still fighting to obtain justice for the violation of any occupational safety regulations by TEPCO; the collective burials have swept away the identity of those injured to death by the tsunamis and survivors are still struggle to restore those lives, in order to not let them fell into oblivion. All these figures have in common the same experience of the three-fold catatrasophe of 11 March 2011: they all represent different pieces of the same pot, held together by gold and silver ribs, the hibakusha identity. Japanese literature stands as a spokesperson for this social fragmentation returning the voice of the victims and by encouraging Japanese ganbarism it reveals the internal corruption which divides Japanese society in terms of identity: disowned or recognised identity; awarded or hampered identity; protected or refused identity. In a word, kintsugi identity of contemporary Japan.
Abstract
In the last few decades the literary practice has been transcending its field of compete... more Abstract In the last few decades the literary practice has been transcending its field of competence to explore other artistic areas; the literary work is no more limited to the printed media only but has developed into other forms of literary production among which literary performances have their key role. Authors like Tawada Yōkō and Wagō Ryōichi have made their strength point in performing their literary works in front of an audience to the point that a study on their literary production can not ignore an investigation on their lively performances too, especially considering the social commitment they expressed regarding the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident. This trend suggests the need to upgrade the approach of teaching contemporary Japanese Literature in order to provide the students with a 360° overview of the literary production of authors. In this regards, the promotion of multidisciplinary courses focused on a special theme rather than a particular authorial figure or a literary genre is to be preferred. This brief research offers a panoramic of courses held by University of California Berkeley and Université de Montréal in 2013 and 2015 respectively; both courses were developed around different artistic fields involving literature, movies, manga and anime, under the common denominator of 3/11 (11th March 2011 disaster) as an investigative keyword. The attempt is to demonstrate that a shift from the traditional teaching courses to an innovative approach ables to offer a multifaceted perspective on a particular theme is all the more necessary to better investigate this new trend in authorial literary production.
On 11th March 2011 at 2:46 PM the Japanese writer Tawada Yōko was in Berlin, miles away from her ... more On 11th March 2011 at 2:46 PM the Japanese writer Tawada Yōko was in Berlin, miles away from her Japanese homeland. Still, the author got affected by the 9 magnitude earthquake that stroke Tōhoku coast at that time. As the tsunami came to shore wiping out everything that was spared by the quake, the aftershocks reached Tawada and now reverberates in some of her last new literary works. First, Fushi no Shima (“The Island of the Eternal Life”) published in the collection Sore demo sangatsu wa, mata: a ten-page story about a no more lively island, namely, Japan. Then, after years of muteness regarding the Daishinsai topic, the 2014 collection of novels published under the evocative title Kentōshi (“The messenger of the votive lantern”) resonates the echo of that aftermath again: Tawada imagines a forthcoming catastrophic scenario clearly influenced by 2011 disaster. The dystopian keyword adopted by the author for these post-Fukushima narratives represents a camera lens through which the writer observes Japanese 11th March. This brief article aims to investigate these two Tawada Yōko’s responses to Japanese 3/11 with the aid of the journal the author wrote during those days and published under the French title Journal des jours tremblants: Après Fukushima.
The literary responses to Fukushima disaster appeared in the last few years highlighted the simil... more The literary responses to Fukushima disaster appeared in the last few years highlighted the similarities with Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing experiences as long as both tragedies were caused by an arguable usage of nuclear power. What is remarkable, is that a seismically active area like Japan subjected to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions ever since has not ever taken a stand on the “literature of the catastrophe” as a genre itself. While the literature about Shoah got a foothold as Holocaust novel, the Japanese genbaku bungaku was instead refused by the bundan and by hibakusha themselves sounding a critical note for the literary value of the testimonial accounts. Nowadays, the increasing number of post-Fukushima literary works brought to the fore the need to reconsider the traditional literary canon to revalue a genre, the one regarding catastrophe, which especially in Japan found literary expressions since the dawn of time: Kamo no Chōmei, Terada Torahiko, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke are just a few of the authors concerned about disasters that occurred in the country and the necessary efforts to overcome them. This brief research provides an excursus of the critical debate concerning the relation between literature and canon to define the literary genre of the catastrophe. On the one hand, it underlines the continuity of genbaku bungaku themes, on the other hand, it reveals the innovative character of the newborn Fukushima bungaku in terms of representing the trauma not only in poetic, fictional forms but also on social media.
The tradition of the literary retelling is not anew: classical authors like Omero have been quote... more The tradition of the literary retelling is not anew: classical authors like Omero have been quoted and revisited a number of times. Japanese literary responses to 11th March catastrophe seem to follow a similar trend. This brief research aims to investigate Nakamori Akio and Kawakami Hiromi 2011 novels as examples of literary remakes in a new “catastrophic” perspective: the attempt is to demonstrate how catastrophe influences the communication of trauma in literature. The research underlines analogies and differences between the original versions and the remaking under the 3/11 keyword, suggesting the need to communicate trauma as the main reason for the rewriting.
Wagō Ryōichi is a Japanese poet who met with success after publishing his poetical works on Twitt... more Wagō Ryōichi is a Japanese poet who met with success after publishing his poetical works on Twitter: real time testimony of the aftershocks in the devastated Tōhoku area that spread worldwide after 11th March 2011. The term net-poetry embraces the double nature of (social) «network» and «poetry», combining poetical verses with images and photographs. Nevertheless, despite the outstanding innovation of this literary production, Wagō’s poems frequently pay homages to the Japanese literary tradition especially the genbau bungaku genre (A-bomb literature). The aim of this article is to underline the role of Wagō’s net-poetry as a literary hub between tradition (especially referring to Hara Tamiki and Tōge Sankichi’s literary production) and innovation under the keywords of “catastrophe” and “nuclear power”, digging up a possible connection between Japanese genbaku experience and the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant nuclear fallout.
The natsukashisa (nostalgia) is a common key to interpretation of novels written by the Japanese ... more The natsukashisa (nostalgia) is a common key to interpretation of novels written by the Japanese writer Yoshimoto Banana. Considered as the desire for a replay of life, nostalgia is evaluated as a solution for the sensation of emptiness and solitude attributed to modern life; a gap that can be bridged by memory, recollection and flash-backs of the protagonists in Yoshimoto’s novels. As a representation for something gone, the objects of this nostalgic feeling assume different forms in Yoshimoto’s works: a faraway house, a lost person, a feeling perceived and then missed; dreams, hallucinations, images and paintings: everything is transformed by the author in a vehicle to allow the reader to sympathize with the protagonists and share the same nostalgic feeling. Author’s attempt is to encourage the young readers to keep on seeking the lost self in the past in order to not betray one’s identity. This is the main topic one can also recognise in her novel called Sweet Hereafter, a publication in which nostalgia for a self lost in a car accident is compared to the one felt by the hisaisha of Tōhoku region who lost everything after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11th March 2011. Here Yoshimoto suggests natsukashisa as the possible way to overcome the traumatic experience of witnessing Japanese Daishinsai. This brief investigation proposes a literary case study that highlights the relation between trauma and memory, with a particular focus on nostalgia considered as a positive means for overcoming traumatic experience.
DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, 2024
This study investigates the female body and its symbolic deconstruction that occurred following t... more This study investigates the female body and its symbolic deconstruction that occurred following the double atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) as well as the more recent nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant (2011). By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this research explores the legacy of the ryōsai kenbo ('good wife, wise mother') model and how radioactivity exposure disrupted that ideal by transforming radioactivity-contaminated women into 'monsters'. Postfeminist theories on the 'monstrous-feminine' are implemented to read testimonies on radiophobia, starting from Hayashi Kyōko's production, the case study of the Hiroshima Maidens and Sono Sion's movie Land of Hope (2012). The aim is to prove how the radioactivity agency deconstructed the female body as a mere reproductive resource and encouraged an emergent vision of its reconstruction as a woman-individual, claiming her active participation as a social actor.
Tawada Yōko has enjoyed international acclaim in recent years for her eclectic production that ov... more Tawada Yōko has enjoyed international acclaim in recent years for her eclectic production that overcomes ethnic and linguistic barriers to constitute a universal language that is the literary one. This contribution analyzes the poem Hamlet No See (2011?), written in Japanese/English and translated into German by the author, which constitutes a ground for intertextual experimentation through the revival of cross-cultural elements such as Shakespeare's Hamlet.
After a brief introduction related to the role of multilingualism in the expression of psychological trauma, the study aims to investigate how the multilingualism performed by Tawada in her poem can assist in verbalizing the post-Fukushima radiation anxiety in the attempt to overcome the inexplicable.
DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, 2024
The global entertainment world has recently seen an increase in postapocalyptic products, clearly... more The global entertainment world has recently seen an increase in postapocalyptic products, clearly reflecting a public demand for catastrophe-related narratives. This 'catastrophilia' finds a relevant example in the dystopian works by Komatsu Sakyō, one of Japan's most celebrated science fiction authors, beginning with the first novel Nihon chinbotsu (1973). Having become a transmedia product thanks to film, manga, and anime adaptations, the story portrays a fictional version of "The Big One" able to sink the entire Japanese archipelago in an unknown future. What is the reason behind such success? By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective intertwining psychological, philosophical and media studies, this paper examines the popularity achieved by Japan Sinks and its mediascape to unveil the addiction to the apocalyptic narratives that goes beyond the ecotopic purpose of re-establishing a symbiotic contact between humans and the environment. Instead, it results from a pathological desire for violence and death and an atavistic tendency for morbid curiosity.
DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, 2023
In 1961, the Eichmann trial opened in Jerusalem, and its worldwide resonance through media covera... more In 1961, the Eichmann trial opened in Jerusalem, and its worldwide resonance through media coverage questioned the collective conscience about responsibility for Nazi crimes. German philosopher Hannah Arendt attended the process as a special correspondent for the U.S. magazine The New Yorker. Her Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963) caused a great scandal: the author advanced the brazen idea of collective co-responsibility for Nazi crimes, reporting the identikit of a standard bureaucrat, a seemingly ordinary man, just like any one of us. Almost sixty years after its publication, this study adopts a primarily psycho(patho)logical perspective to reflect once again on the considerations Arendt shared in the Banality of Evil. In showing the multiple facets of banality, the research investigates recent results in the analysis of the criminal mind in order to shed light on the etiology of evil.
Introduction to the DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 3 No. 1 (... more Introduction to the DIVE-IN – An International Journal on Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023). "Täter, Mitläufer, and the Responsibility for Evil" by Veronica De Pieri and Elisa Pontini
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of the world's most successful literary exam... more The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of the world's most successful literary examples of transmediality. Its multiple retellings have ranged from film to animation, amplifying that favorable public and critical response with which the original novella was received. Among them, Shiine Yamato's FUKUSHIMA no ōjisama (2011) stands as a rewriting of Saint-Exupéry's masterpiece in a post-Fukushima key. This study aims to understand the author's reasons for adopting precisely The Little Prince as a source of inspiration to depict childhood marked by the danger of radioactivity and the prevailing radiophobia in the post-nuclear accident scenario. In doing so, the investigation adopts a comparative perspective aimed at highlighting the reasons for continuity and rupture between the two works, as well as a psycho(pato)logical approach interested in analyzing the topoi of otherness, attachment, and mourning that are common of two works, evidence of the self-therapeutic effort of the two authors.
Two years after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or 3.11 as it is more commonly known, Japa... more Two years after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or 3.11 as it is more commonly known, Japanese author Itō Seikō いとうせいこう achieved a resounding success with his novel Sōzō Rajio 想像ラジオ, an atypical story of a radio program whose main protagonists are the deceased. Ten years later, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the disaster, the nonfictional work entitled Fukushima monorōgu 福島モノローグ makes its appearance on the bookshelves. This late publication brings back the voices of the 3.11 survivors in a specular fashion in comparison with the previous work and elicits the misleading juxtaposition of fiction and death, and non-fiction and life. This study explores the representational power of Itō's literature when it comes to mourning death and loss in the wake of the 3.11 disaster. By applying a psychological reading of his works, the article pursues the main objective, which is to investigate the role of literature in dealing with psychological trauma and examine how trauma is represented, thus emphasizing the value attributed by the writer to the victim's mourning voices.
Textual agency plays a fundamental role with regard to the literary production devoted to catastr... more Textual agency plays a fundamental role with regard to the literary production devoted to catastrophic events and the trauma they entail; it raises questions about the ethics of the disaster, as if to say the legitimacy of the literary works on the theme. The authorial commitment to bear witness to the events often clashes with the unrepresentability of the event itself: silence and discursivity are both misleading choices in the sense that the first is a real blot on History, while the latter implies to domesticate trauma in order to transpose it into literary forms. This article aims to give relevance to the therapeutic agency of the Literature of the catastrophe and in doing so, it contributes to the re-evaluation of the genre as part of the literary canon.
Negli ultimi decenni studi di spicotraumatologia clinica associati all’investigazione letteraria ... more Negli ultimi decenni studi di spicotraumatologia clinica associati all’investigazione letteraria hanno evidenziato come la scriptoterapia sia un esercizio terapeutico efficace per combattere i sintomi dell’analfabetismo emozionale, prima risposta di un soggetto sottoposto a forte shock traumatico. Forme testimoniali orali o scritte rappresentano il risultato degli sforzi comunicativi della vittima, di cui il destinatario del messaggio assume un ruolo determinante. La presa di coscienza sociale è infatti fondamentale: la testimonianza da sola non basta per affrontare il trauma esperito e necessita di dialogismo; l’empatia dell’audience - sia essa il semplice psicoanalista - è di primaria importanza per l’elaborazione del trauma e la sua guarigione. Questo breve studio intende dimostrare come la recente risposta letteraria alla triplice catastrofe dell’11 marzo 2011 avvalori l’importanza attribuita al ruolo del lettore dagli studi di psicanalisi applicati al prodotto letterario. La ricerca si snoda in quattro differenti fasi: una prima introduzione agli studi teorici nel campo della scriptoterapia; una seconda sezione che indaga il rapporto tra catastrofe e trauma trasposto in prodotto letterario attraverso la chiave di lettura nota come 3.11 e infine, una selezione di testi che approcciano il tema del Daishinsai e dell’incidente nucleare di Fukushima Daiichi attraverso la pluralità di stili (poetico, fictional e nonfictional) prestando particolare attenzione al target del prodotto letterario e alle dinamiche messe in atto dall’autore per sollecitare la compartecipazione attiva del lettore. Nelle conclusioni si cercherà di evidenziare la validità della teoria scriptoterapica osservando come, indipendentemente dalla diversa natura del prodotto letterario, non è l’autore, bensì il lettore che, attraverso la ricezione e la risposta empatica, consente all’opera testimoniale di diventare tale e attivare così il processo di guarigione dal trauma.
Koi suru genpatsu by Takahashi Genichirō is without doubt one of the most controversial literary ... more Koi suru genpatsu by Takahashi Genichirō is without doubt one of the most controversial literary work in the post-3.11 literary panorama. Apart from the plot based on the filming of a charity AV in the sake of Tohoku victims, this long novel stands out for the provocative literary essay hereby included. In this piece of literary criticism the author stresses the relevance of Kawakami Hiromi’s Kamisama 2011 as a literary response to the anti-nuclear debate which stirred up among Japanese politicians, scientists and also literati soon after the nuclear fallout at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on 11th March 2011. Takahashi’s essay contributes to the evaluation of the literary production on the topic of 3.11 disaster by considering the compelling role the words assumed in the wake of catastrophe; at the same time, this essay provides a gateway to the interpretation of Takahashi’s Koi suru genpatsu, especially taking into account the final scene that concludes the AV as well as the novel: a marasma of human bodies, dead and alive, making love together. A provocative, even naughty image that questions the reader about the ontological meaning of disaster.
January 27, 1945: the Red Army set Auschwitz concentration camp free, making this date the “liber... more January 27, 1945: the Red Army set Auschwitz concentration camp free, making this date the “liberation day” for thousands of inmates, victims of Nazi’s idea of the “master race”. August 15, 1945: Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender on Japanese radio after experienced the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. XX century witnessed two of the most abominable atrocities of human history whose repercussions still affect not only German and Japanese societies, involved at first place, but also individual consciousness too. Over the past decades different studies have been investigating these indelible marks on History on many levels: historical, political, sociological, psychological and even artistic approaches were called into question in the search for the truth about Shoah and atomic bombing catastrophes. This study offers a different perspective on the topic by comparing the poetical responses of two representatives of the so-called Shoah Literature and Atomic Bombing Literature: Primo Levi and Hara Tamiki. Both authors, although the space-related distance and the different nature of the traumatic experiences they witnessed, gave birth to similar poetical responses under the title of Se questo è un uomo (“If this is a man”) and Kore ga ningen na no desu (“This is a human being”). This research sets itself the ambitious goal to demonstrate how, regardless of territorial, cultural and stylistic boundaries, a similar human response toward catastrophe can be detached in the literary productions of Levi and Hara: a comparison on stylistic, figurative and expressive level reveals the analogous literary solutions adopted by the authors to depict human’s frailty in front of trauma. Both authors answer the literary imperative of writing: their commitment unveils the aim to bear witness and to convey memory to the future generations. Words, enriched by authors of allusive and critical meanings, represent an effective and necessary means to keep alive and to preserve the traumatic memory. The literature of the catastrophe, then, becomes a language that unites, rather than divides, different societies. It serves as universal mouthpiece for victim’s experience to prevent Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to happen again.
Kintsugi identifies the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed up w... more Kintsugi identifies the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed up with powdered gold, silver or platinum: the result is a new piece of art whose beauty resides in the emphasis given to the injuries. The surface of the manufacture is crossed by gold and silver sparkling ribs, proud as a knight who shows his wounds. A watchful gaze of the Tohōku area after the 11th March 2011 Daishinsai reflects the kintsugi identity of Japanese society in its full controversy: the evacuees at the refugee camps are still seeking aids from the Japanese government; the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi are still fighting to obtain justice for the violation of any occupational safety regulations by TEPCO; the collective burials have swept away the identity of those injured to death by the tsunamis and survivors are still struggle to restore those lives, in order to not let them fell into oblivion. All these figures have in common the same experience of the three-fold catatrasophe of 11 March 2011: they all represent different pieces of the same pot, held together by gold and silver ribs, the hibakusha identity. Japanese literature stands as a spokesperson for this social fragmentation returning the voice of the victims and by encouraging Japanese ganbarism it reveals the internal corruption which divides Japanese society in terms of identity: disowned or recognised identity; awarded or hampered identity; protected or refused identity. In a word, kintsugi identity of contemporary Japan.
Abstract
In the last few decades the literary practice has been transcending its field of compete... more Abstract In the last few decades the literary practice has been transcending its field of competence to explore other artistic areas; the literary work is no more limited to the printed media only but has developed into other forms of literary production among which literary performances have their key role. Authors like Tawada Yōkō and Wagō Ryōichi have made their strength point in performing their literary works in front of an audience to the point that a study on their literary production can not ignore an investigation on their lively performances too, especially considering the social commitment they expressed regarding the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident. This trend suggests the need to upgrade the approach of teaching contemporary Japanese Literature in order to provide the students with a 360° overview of the literary production of authors. In this regards, the promotion of multidisciplinary courses focused on a special theme rather than a particular authorial figure or a literary genre is to be preferred. This brief research offers a panoramic of courses held by University of California Berkeley and Université de Montréal in 2013 and 2015 respectively; both courses were developed around different artistic fields involving literature, movies, manga and anime, under the common denominator of 3/11 (11th March 2011 disaster) as an investigative keyword. The attempt is to demonstrate that a shift from the traditional teaching courses to an innovative approach ables to offer a multifaceted perspective on a particular theme is all the more necessary to better investigate this new trend in authorial literary production.
On 11th March 2011 at 2:46 PM the Japanese writer Tawada Yōko was in Berlin, miles away from her ... more On 11th March 2011 at 2:46 PM the Japanese writer Tawada Yōko was in Berlin, miles away from her Japanese homeland. Still, the author got affected by the 9 magnitude earthquake that stroke Tōhoku coast at that time. As the tsunami came to shore wiping out everything that was spared by the quake, the aftershocks reached Tawada and now reverberates in some of her last new literary works. First, Fushi no Shima (“The Island of the Eternal Life”) published in the collection Sore demo sangatsu wa, mata: a ten-page story about a no more lively island, namely, Japan. Then, after years of muteness regarding the Daishinsai topic, the 2014 collection of novels published under the evocative title Kentōshi (“The messenger of the votive lantern”) resonates the echo of that aftermath again: Tawada imagines a forthcoming catastrophic scenario clearly influenced by 2011 disaster. The dystopian keyword adopted by the author for these post-Fukushima narratives represents a camera lens through which the writer observes Japanese 11th March. This brief article aims to investigate these two Tawada Yōko’s responses to Japanese 3/11 with the aid of the journal the author wrote during those days and published under the French title Journal des jours tremblants: Après Fukushima.
The literary responses to Fukushima disaster appeared in the last few years highlighted the simil... more The literary responses to Fukushima disaster appeared in the last few years highlighted the similarities with Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing experiences as long as both tragedies were caused by an arguable usage of nuclear power. What is remarkable, is that a seismically active area like Japan subjected to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions ever since has not ever taken a stand on the “literature of the catastrophe” as a genre itself. While the literature about Shoah got a foothold as Holocaust novel, the Japanese genbaku bungaku was instead refused by the bundan and by hibakusha themselves sounding a critical note for the literary value of the testimonial accounts. Nowadays, the increasing number of post-Fukushima literary works brought to the fore the need to reconsider the traditional literary canon to revalue a genre, the one regarding catastrophe, which especially in Japan found literary expressions since the dawn of time: Kamo no Chōmei, Terada Torahiko, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke are just a few of the authors concerned about disasters that occurred in the country and the necessary efforts to overcome them. This brief research provides an excursus of the critical debate concerning the relation between literature and canon to define the literary genre of the catastrophe. On the one hand, it underlines the continuity of genbaku bungaku themes, on the other hand, it reveals the innovative character of the newborn Fukushima bungaku in terms of representing the trauma not only in poetic, fictional forms but also on social media.
The tradition of the literary retelling is not anew: classical authors like Omero have been quote... more The tradition of the literary retelling is not anew: classical authors like Omero have been quoted and revisited a number of times. Japanese literary responses to 11th March catastrophe seem to follow a similar trend. This brief research aims to investigate Nakamori Akio and Kawakami Hiromi 2011 novels as examples of literary remakes in a new “catastrophic” perspective: the attempt is to demonstrate how catastrophe influences the communication of trauma in literature. The research underlines analogies and differences between the original versions and the remaking under the 3/11 keyword, suggesting the need to communicate trauma as the main reason for the rewriting.
Wagō Ryōichi is a Japanese poet who met with success after publishing his poetical works on Twitt... more Wagō Ryōichi is a Japanese poet who met with success after publishing his poetical works on Twitter: real time testimony of the aftershocks in the devastated Tōhoku area that spread worldwide after 11th March 2011. The term net-poetry embraces the double nature of (social) «network» and «poetry», combining poetical verses with images and photographs. Nevertheless, despite the outstanding innovation of this literary production, Wagō’s poems frequently pay homages to the Japanese literary tradition especially the genbau bungaku genre (A-bomb literature). The aim of this article is to underline the role of Wagō’s net-poetry as a literary hub between tradition (especially referring to Hara Tamiki and Tōge Sankichi’s literary production) and innovation under the keywords of “catastrophe” and “nuclear power”, digging up a possible connection between Japanese genbaku experience and the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant nuclear fallout.
The natsukashisa (nostalgia) is a common key to interpretation of novels written by the Japanese ... more The natsukashisa (nostalgia) is a common key to interpretation of novels written by the Japanese writer Yoshimoto Banana. Considered as the desire for a replay of life, nostalgia is evaluated as a solution for the sensation of emptiness and solitude attributed to modern life; a gap that can be bridged by memory, recollection and flash-backs of the protagonists in Yoshimoto’s novels. As a representation for something gone, the objects of this nostalgic feeling assume different forms in Yoshimoto’s works: a faraway house, a lost person, a feeling perceived and then missed; dreams, hallucinations, images and paintings: everything is transformed by the author in a vehicle to allow the reader to sympathize with the protagonists and share the same nostalgic feeling. Author’s attempt is to encourage the young readers to keep on seeking the lost self in the past in order to not betray one’s identity. This is the main topic one can also recognise in her novel called Sweet Hereafter, a publication in which nostalgia for a self lost in a car accident is compared to the one felt by the hisaisha of Tōhoku region who lost everything after the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11th March 2011. Here Yoshimoto suggests natsukashisa as the possible way to overcome the traumatic experience of witnessing Japanese Daishinsai. This brief investigation proposes a literary case study that highlights the relation between trauma and memory, with a particular focus on nostalgia considered as a positive means for overcoming traumatic experience.
After the Atomic bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed a different face: no more written in kanji... more After the Atomic bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed a different face: no more written in kanji but in the angular phonetic script known as katakana, these cities became the locus for an everlasting memory of atomic experience. Nowadays, a similar trend that involves Fukushima city can be recognised in Japanese printed media too, digging up the genbaku experience comparing to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant fallout. The aim of this brief research is to propose a way to transliterate these Japanese nuclear cities preserving their traumatic connotation realised thorough the choice of katakana syllabary. Moreover, while Japanese language revealed its inadequacy to depict the atomic scenario after August 1945, the katakana phonetic alphabet was proposed by authors like Hara Tamiki as an escamotage to transpose into words victims’ trauma, thanks to the estrangement effect attributed to this writing system for foreign words. The usage of katakana contributes to arise the sense of calamity caused by atomic linked tragedy. Likewise, after 11th March the voice of the poet Wagō Ryōichi became the echo of Hara Tamiki by evoking in his literary production the same estrangement feeling to talk about Japanese Daishinsai. This investigation underlines the difficulty of translating into other languages victims’ accounts written in katakana by showing some examples drawn from Hara and Wagō’s production respectively, also stressing the relevance of katakana usage as a common denominator to describe Japanese nuclear catastrophes.
Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti:
prevenzione e strategie di ... more Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti: prevenzione e strategie di intervento Tesina di fine Modulo 4: L'intervento sociale nelle situazioni traumatiche: diritti umani e principi di solidarietà Titolo tesina: Radiofobia: discriminazione sociale verso gli evacuati di Černobyl' e Fukushima. Una prospettiva comparativa
Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti:
prevenzione e strategie di ... more Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti: prevenzione e strategie di intervento Tesina di fine Modulo 3: Programmi e modelli di intervento nelle situazioni traumatiche Titolo tesina: Sequele posttraumatiche e copertura mediatica post 9/11: trauma reporting e media witnessing
Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti:
prevenzione e strategie di ... more Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti: prevenzione e strategie di intervento Tesina di fine Modulo 2: Valutazione clinica e strumenti di indagine nell'area traumatica Titolo tesina: Sequele psicopatologiche in soggetti in utero, infanti e adolescenti esposti ai bombardamenti atomici di Hiroshima e Nagasaki
Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti:
prevenzione e strategie di ... more Master I Livello: L’impatto di esperienze traumatiche e/o stressanti: prevenzione e strategie di intervento Tesina di fine Modulo 1: Tipologie delle Esperienze Traumatiche e Sistemi di Attaccamento Titolo tesina: La KZ-Syndrome
La ricerca concentra l’attenzione su prodotti letterari pubblicati a un anno dall’11 marzo 2011, ... more La ricerca concentra l’attenzione su prodotti letterari pubblicati a un anno dall’11 marzo 2011, enfatizzando così il primo impatto che la triplice catastrofe di sisma, tsunami e meltdown nucleare alla centrale di Fukushima Daiichi ha avuto sulla produzione letteraria giapponese. L’analisi indaga forme, stili e contenuti di quella che potrebbe essere definita “letteratura delle macerie” (Trümmerliterature) per citare il termine utilizzato da Tachibana Reiko nel descrivere le prime risposte letterarie tedesche a Shoah e Seconda Guerra Mondiale. In questa nuova prospettiva, la “letteratura delle macerie” post-3.11 fornisce una prima trasposizione letteraria del trauma subìto dalle vittime, dando vita alla prima letteratura testimoniale sull’11 marzo. Questo studio mette in luce il delicato rapporto tra letteratura e prodotto testimoniale attraverso l’analisi di alcuni espedienti letterari atti a dipingere il disastro del 3.11. Ogni capitolo indaga autori diversi che danno vita a diverse forme testimoniali: Wagō Ryōichi, Gen’yū Sōkyū, Abe Kazushige, Kawakami Mieko, Takahashi Gen’ichirō, i quali costituiscono l’opportunità di muoversi letterariamente - e geograficamente - attraverso il Giappone post-3.11. Tutti i prodotti letterari sono collegati da un fil rouge che, in ultima analisi, unisce Fukushima ad Hiroshima sottolineandone il comune denominatore di città esposte alla radioattività. Come ultima nota, l’influenza del trauma nella produzione letteraria e testimoniale è messo in evidenza attraverso i più recenti studi di psicotraumatologia applicati alla letteratura, sottolineando così il sottile confine tra veridicità storica e rappresentabilità letteraria alla base dell’ “etica del disastro”. Il tentativo di definire il ruolo e l’impegno che ogni autore dimostra nei confronti della catastrofe del 3.11 si esplica nella caratterizzazione di differenti figure testimoniali: la letteratura rappresenta in questo senso il punto di incontro tra la testimonianza autoriale e l’attendibilità dei fatti storici.
This study turns the attention to Japanese female journalism in the catastrophic aftermath of 3.1... more This study turns the attention to Japanese female journalism in the catastrophic aftermath of 3.11 through a literary comparison between Ōta Yōko’s Shikabane no machi and Yoshida Chia’s Sono ato no Fukushima. Although there are seventy years between the two publications, they are a full-fledged part of the testimonial narratives of Hiroshima’s atomic bombing and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown. Both journalists were at the forefront of reporting hibakusha’s testimonies and both have underlined the discrimination that survivors experienced soon after the catastrophes. They acknowledged the burdensome fear of the a-bomb disease and the radiation sickness, thus taking into account with extreme sensitivity the peculiar condition of women in the aftermath. Their writings reflect their compelling struggle to commit themselves as female witnesses and reporters and, at the same time, to convey both the victims’ suffering and harsh criticism of the Japanese government’s responsibility in the disaster. After a brief overview of authorial profiles, the study suggests a literary comparison between the works in question based on the topics mentioned above, concluding with a final remark on the role of Japanese female journalism in the broader perspective of the testimonial narrative, with a particular emphasis on trauma and memory representations in the nonfictional production.
in "Città di cadaveri" di Ōta Yōko. Titolo originale: "Shikabane no machi". Trad. ad opera di Ver... more in "Città di cadaveri" di Ōta Yōko. Titolo originale: "Shikabane no machi". Trad. ad opera di Veronica De Pieri
in "Quando il cielo piove d'indifferenza" di Shiga Izumi. Titolo originale: Mujō no kami ga maior... more in "Quando il cielo piove d'indifferenza" di Shiga Izumi. Titolo originale: Mujō no kami ga maioriru. Trad. ad opera di Veronica De Pieri
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Papers by Veronica De Pieri
After a brief introduction related to the role of multilingualism in the expression of psychological trauma, the study aims to investigate how the multilingualism performed by Tawada in her poem can assist in verbalizing the post-Fukushima radiation anxiety in the attempt to overcome the inexplicable.
"Täter, Mitläufer, and the Responsibility for Evil" by Veronica De Pieri and Elisa Pontini
Questo breve studio intende dimostrare come la recente risposta letteraria alla triplice catastrofe dell’11 marzo 2011 avvalori l’importanza attribuita al ruolo del lettore dagli studi di psicanalisi applicati al prodotto letterario. La ricerca si snoda in quattro differenti fasi: una prima introduzione agli studi teorici nel campo della scriptoterapia; una seconda sezione che indaga il rapporto tra catastrofe e trauma trasposto in prodotto letterario attraverso la chiave di lettura nota come 3.11 e infine, una selezione di testi che approcciano il tema del Daishinsai e dell’incidente nucleare di Fukushima Daiichi attraverso la pluralità di stili (poetico, fictional e nonfictional) prestando particolare attenzione al target del prodotto letterario e alle dinamiche messe in atto dall’autore per sollecitare la compartecipazione attiva del lettore. Nelle conclusioni si cercherà di evidenziare la validità della teoria scriptoterapica osservando come, indipendentemente dalla diversa natura del prodotto letterario, non è l’autore, bensì il lettore che, attraverso la ricezione e la risposta empatica, consente all’opera testimoniale di diventare tale e attivare così il processo di guarigione dal trauma.
Takahashi’s essay contributes to the evaluation of the literary production on the topic of 3.11 disaster by considering the compelling role the words assumed in the wake of catastrophe; at the same time, this essay provides a gateway to the interpretation of Takahashi’s Koi suru genpatsu, especially taking into account the final scene that concludes the AV as well as the novel: a marasma of human bodies, dead and alive, making love together. A provocative, even naughty image that questions the reader about the ontological meaning of disaster.
Over the past decades different studies have been investigating these indelible marks on History on many levels: historical, political, sociological, psychological and even artistic approaches were called into question in the search for the truth about Shoah and atomic bombing catastrophes.
This study offers a different perspective on the topic by comparing the poetical responses of two representatives of the so-called Shoah Literature and Atomic Bombing Literature: Primo Levi and Hara Tamiki. Both authors, although the space-related distance and the different nature of the traumatic experiences they witnessed, gave birth to similar poetical responses under the title of Se questo è un uomo (“If this is a man”) and Kore ga ningen na no desu (“This is a human being”).
This research sets itself the ambitious goal to demonstrate how, regardless of territorial, cultural and stylistic boundaries, a similar human response toward catastrophe can be detached in the literary productions of Levi and Hara: a comparison on stylistic, figurative and expressive level reveals the analogous literary solutions adopted by the authors to depict human’s frailty in front of trauma.
Both authors answer the literary imperative of writing: their commitment unveils the aim to bear witness and to convey memory to the future generations. Words, enriched by authors of allusive and critical meanings, represent an effective and necessary means to keep alive and to preserve the traumatic memory. The literature of the catastrophe, then, becomes a language that unites, rather than divides, different societies. It serves as universal mouthpiece for victim’s experience to prevent Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to happen again.
A watchful gaze of the Tohōku area after the 11th March 2011 Daishinsai reflects the kintsugi identity of Japanese society in its full controversy: the evacuees at the refugee camps are still seeking aids from the Japanese government; the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi are still fighting to obtain justice for the violation of any occupational safety regulations by TEPCO; the collective burials have swept away the identity of those injured to death by the tsunamis and survivors are still struggle to restore those lives, in order to not let them fell into oblivion. All these figures have in common the same experience of the three-fold catatrasophe of 11 March 2011: they all represent different pieces of the same pot, held together by gold and silver ribs, the hibakusha identity.
Japanese literature stands as a spokesperson for this social fragmentation returning the voice of the victims and by encouraging Japanese ganbarism it reveals the internal corruption which divides Japanese society in terms of identity: disowned or recognised identity; awarded or hampered identity; protected or refused identity. In a word, kintsugi identity of contemporary Japan.
In the last few decades the literary practice has been transcending its field of competence to explore other artistic areas; the literary work is no more limited to the printed media only but has developed into other forms of literary production among which literary performances have their key role. Authors like Tawada Yōkō and Wagō Ryōichi have made their strength point in performing their literary works in front of an audience to the point that a study on their literary production can not ignore an investigation on their lively performances too, especially considering the social commitment they expressed regarding the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident.
This trend suggests the need to upgrade the approach of teaching contemporary Japanese Literature in order to provide the students with a 360° overview of the literary production of authors. In this regards, the promotion of multidisciplinary courses focused on a special theme rather than a particular authorial figure or a literary genre is to be preferred. This brief research offers a panoramic of courses held by University of California Berkeley and Université de Montréal in 2013 and 2015 respectively; both courses were developed around different artistic fields involving literature, movies, manga and anime, under the common denominator of 3/11 (11th March 2011 disaster) as an investigative keyword. The attempt is to demonstrate that a shift from the traditional teaching courses to an innovative approach ables to offer a multifaceted perspective on a particular theme is all the more necessary to better investigate this new trend in authorial literary production.
What is remarkable, is that a seismically active area like Japan subjected to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions ever since has not ever taken a stand on the “literature of the catastrophe” as a genre itself. While the literature about Shoah got a foothold as Holocaust novel, the Japanese genbaku bungaku was instead refused by the bundan and by hibakusha themselves sounding a critical note for the literary value of the testimonial accounts.
Nowadays, the increasing number of post-Fukushima literary works brought to the fore the need to reconsider the traditional literary canon to revalue a genre, the one regarding catastrophe, which especially in Japan found literary expressions since the dawn of time: Kamo no Chōmei, Terada Torahiko, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke are just a few of the authors concerned about disasters that occurred in the country and the necessary efforts to overcome them.
This brief research provides an excursus of the critical debate concerning the relation between literature and canon to define the literary genre of the catastrophe. On the one hand, it underlines the continuity of genbaku bungaku themes, on the other hand, it reveals the innovative character of the newborn Fukushima bungaku in terms of representing the trauma not only in poetic, fictional forms but also on social media.
After a brief introduction related to the role of multilingualism in the expression of psychological trauma, the study aims to investigate how the multilingualism performed by Tawada in her poem can assist in verbalizing the post-Fukushima radiation anxiety in the attempt to overcome the inexplicable.
"Täter, Mitläufer, and the Responsibility for Evil" by Veronica De Pieri and Elisa Pontini
Questo breve studio intende dimostrare come la recente risposta letteraria alla triplice catastrofe dell’11 marzo 2011 avvalori l’importanza attribuita al ruolo del lettore dagli studi di psicanalisi applicati al prodotto letterario. La ricerca si snoda in quattro differenti fasi: una prima introduzione agli studi teorici nel campo della scriptoterapia; una seconda sezione che indaga il rapporto tra catastrofe e trauma trasposto in prodotto letterario attraverso la chiave di lettura nota come 3.11 e infine, una selezione di testi che approcciano il tema del Daishinsai e dell’incidente nucleare di Fukushima Daiichi attraverso la pluralità di stili (poetico, fictional e nonfictional) prestando particolare attenzione al target del prodotto letterario e alle dinamiche messe in atto dall’autore per sollecitare la compartecipazione attiva del lettore. Nelle conclusioni si cercherà di evidenziare la validità della teoria scriptoterapica osservando come, indipendentemente dalla diversa natura del prodotto letterario, non è l’autore, bensì il lettore che, attraverso la ricezione e la risposta empatica, consente all’opera testimoniale di diventare tale e attivare così il processo di guarigione dal trauma.
Takahashi’s essay contributes to the evaluation of the literary production on the topic of 3.11 disaster by considering the compelling role the words assumed in the wake of catastrophe; at the same time, this essay provides a gateway to the interpretation of Takahashi’s Koi suru genpatsu, especially taking into account the final scene that concludes the AV as well as the novel: a marasma of human bodies, dead and alive, making love together. A provocative, even naughty image that questions the reader about the ontological meaning of disaster.
Over the past decades different studies have been investigating these indelible marks on History on many levels: historical, political, sociological, psychological and even artistic approaches were called into question in the search for the truth about Shoah and atomic bombing catastrophes.
This study offers a different perspective on the topic by comparing the poetical responses of two representatives of the so-called Shoah Literature and Atomic Bombing Literature: Primo Levi and Hara Tamiki. Both authors, although the space-related distance and the different nature of the traumatic experiences they witnessed, gave birth to similar poetical responses under the title of Se questo è un uomo (“If this is a man”) and Kore ga ningen na no desu (“This is a human being”).
This research sets itself the ambitious goal to demonstrate how, regardless of territorial, cultural and stylistic boundaries, a similar human response toward catastrophe can be detached in the literary productions of Levi and Hara: a comparison on stylistic, figurative and expressive level reveals the analogous literary solutions adopted by the authors to depict human’s frailty in front of trauma.
Both authors answer the literary imperative of writing: their commitment unveils the aim to bear witness and to convey memory to the future generations. Words, enriched by authors of allusive and critical meanings, represent an effective and necessary means to keep alive and to preserve the traumatic memory. The literature of the catastrophe, then, becomes a language that unites, rather than divides, different societies. It serves as universal mouthpiece for victim’s experience to prevent Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to happen again.
A watchful gaze of the Tohōku area after the 11th March 2011 Daishinsai reflects the kintsugi identity of Japanese society in its full controversy: the evacuees at the refugee camps are still seeking aids from the Japanese government; the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi are still fighting to obtain justice for the violation of any occupational safety regulations by TEPCO; the collective burials have swept away the identity of those injured to death by the tsunamis and survivors are still struggle to restore those lives, in order to not let them fell into oblivion. All these figures have in common the same experience of the three-fold catatrasophe of 11 March 2011: they all represent different pieces of the same pot, held together by gold and silver ribs, the hibakusha identity.
Japanese literature stands as a spokesperson for this social fragmentation returning the voice of the victims and by encouraging Japanese ganbarism it reveals the internal corruption which divides Japanese society in terms of identity: disowned or recognised identity; awarded or hampered identity; protected or refused identity. In a word, kintsugi identity of contemporary Japan.
In the last few decades the literary practice has been transcending its field of competence to explore other artistic areas; the literary work is no more limited to the printed media only but has developed into other forms of literary production among which literary performances have their key role. Authors like Tawada Yōkō and Wagō Ryōichi have made their strength point in performing their literary works in front of an audience to the point that a study on their literary production can not ignore an investigation on their lively performances too, especially considering the social commitment they expressed regarding the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident.
This trend suggests the need to upgrade the approach of teaching contemporary Japanese Literature in order to provide the students with a 360° overview of the literary production of authors. In this regards, the promotion of multidisciplinary courses focused on a special theme rather than a particular authorial figure or a literary genre is to be preferred. This brief research offers a panoramic of courses held by University of California Berkeley and Université de Montréal in 2013 and 2015 respectively; both courses were developed around different artistic fields involving literature, movies, manga and anime, under the common denominator of 3/11 (11th March 2011 disaster) as an investigative keyword. The attempt is to demonstrate that a shift from the traditional teaching courses to an innovative approach ables to offer a multifaceted perspective on a particular theme is all the more necessary to better investigate this new trend in authorial literary production.
What is remarkable, is that a seismically active area like Japan subjected to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions ever since has not ever taken a stand on the “literature of the catastrophe” as a genre itself. While the literature about Shoah got a foothold as Holocaust novel, the Japanese genbaku bungaku was instead refused by the bundan and by hibakusha themselves sounding a critical note for the literary value of the testimonial accounts.
Nowadays, the increasing number of post-Fukushima literary works brought to the fore the need to reconsider the traditional literary canon to revalue a genre, the one regarding catastrophe, which especially in Japan found literary expressions since the dawn of time: Kamo no Chōmei, Terada Torahiko, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke are just a few of the authors concerned about disasters that occurred in the country and the necessary efforts to overcome them.
This brief research provides an excursus of the critical debate concerning the relation between literature and canon to define the literary genre of the catastrophe. On the one hand, it underlines the continuity of genbaku bungaku themes, on the other hand, it reveals the innovative character of the newborn Fukushima bungaku in terms of representing the trauma not only in poetic, fictional forms but also on social media.
but in the angular phonetic script known as katakana, these cities became the locus for an
everlasting memory of atomic experience. Nowadays, a similar trend that involves Fukushima city
can be recognised in Japanese printed media too, digging up the genbaku experience comparing
to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant fallout. The aim of this brief research is to
propose a way to transliterate these Japanese nuclear cities preserving their traumatic connotation
realised thorough the choice of katakana syllabary.
Moreover, while Japanese language revealed its inadequacy to depict the atomic scenario after
August 1945, the katakana phonetic alphabet was proposed by authors like Hara Tamiki as an
escamotage to transpose into words victims’ trauma, thanks to the estrangement effect attributed
to this writing system for foreign words. The usage of katakana contributes to arise the sense of
calamity caused by atomic linked tragedy. Likewise, after 11th March the voice of the poet Wagō
Ryōichi became the echo of Hara Tamiki by evoking in his literary production the same
estrangement feeling to talk about Japanese Daishinsai. This investigation underlines the difficulty
of translating into other languages victims’ accounts written in katakana by showing some
examples drawn from Hara and Wagō’s production respectively, also stressing the relevance of
katakana usage as a common denominator to describe Japanese nuclear catastrophes.
prevenzione e strategie di intervento
Tesina di fine Modulo 4: L'intervento sociale nelle situazioni traumatiche:
diritti umani e principi di solidarietà
Titolo tesina: Radiofobia: discriminazione sociale
verso gli evacuati di Černobyl' e Fukushima. Una prospettiva comparativa
prevenzione e strategie di intervento
Tesina di fine Modulo 3: Programmi e modelli di intervento
nelle situazioni traumatiche
Titolo tesina: Sequele posttraumatiche e copertura mediatica post 9/11:
trauma reporting e media witnessing
prevenzione e strategie di intervento
Tesina di fine Modulo 2: Valutazione clinica e
strumenti di indagine nell'area traumatica
Titolo tesina: Sequele psicopatologiche in soggetti in utero,
infanti e adolescenti esposti ai bombardamenti atomici
di Hiroshima e Nagasaki
prevenzione e strategie di intervento
Tesina di fine Modulo 1: Tipologie delle Esperienze Traumatiche e
Sistemi di Attaccamento
Titolo tesina: La KZ-Syndrome
Questo studio mette in luce il delicato rapporto tra letteratura e prodotto testimoniale attraverso l’analisi di alcuni espedienti letterari atti a dipingere il disastro del 3.11. Ogni capitolo indaga autori diversi che danno vita a diverse forme testimoniali: Wagō Ryōichi, Gen’yū Sōkyū, Abe Kazushige, Kawakami Mieko, Takahashi Gen’ichirō, i quali costituiscono l’opportunità di muoversi letterariamente - e geograficamente - attraverso il Giappone post-3.11. Tutti i prodotti letterari sono collegati da un fil rouge che, in ultima analisi, unisce Fukushima ad Hiroshima sottolineandone il comune denominatore di città esposte alla radioattività.
Come ultima nota, l’influenza del trauma nella produzione letteraria e testimoniale è messo in evidenza attraverso i più recenti studi di psicotraumatologia applicati alla letteratura, sottolineando così il sottile confine tra veridicità storica e rappresentabilità letteraria alla base dell’ “etica del disastro”. Il tentativo di definire il ruolo e l’impegno che ogni autore dimostra nei confronti della catastrofe del 3.11 si esplica nella caratterizzazione di differenti figure testimoniali: la letteratura rappresenta in questo senso il punto di incontro tra la testimonianza autoriale e l’attendibilità dei fatti storici.