The Rhetoric of Post-Disaster in Contemporary American Literature

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02579
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Senshu University (2021-2022); Nishikyushu University (2017-2020)
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Mariko 専修大学, 文学部, 教授 (70389394)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 現代アメリカ小説 / 冷戦期アメリカ / 核文学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project focused on examining how contemporary American literature portrays disasters and their aftermath. The study analyzed the following works: Jay McInerney's novels, including _The Good Life_, which criticizes the 9/11 attacks and depicts life in New York before and after the tragedy; Bobbie Ann Mason's _An Atomic Romance_, which explores Cold War nostalgia and nuclear issues; Tim O'Brien's works, which feature Vietnam war and its effects; and the Japanese monster movie _Matango_.
The results of the research include the relationship between the collapse of the Twin Towers and the uniting of North and South in American history, the connection between war literature and disaster literature, the persistence of the "postwar" period, and the nuclear imagination and Cold War survival common in Japanese and American culture.

Free Research Field

アメリカ文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

戦争・災害・テロリズムの余波とともに生きる人間の生を描いた現代アメリカ小説を「ポスト・ディザスター」という枠組みで論じる批評的作業は、それが内包する時間的持続性を問題とするとともに、三つのナラティブの共振性を浮かび上がらせる。本課題で考察した作品群では、少なくともこれらの二つ以上が複合的に絡み合っている。アメリカ文学史を見渡しても戦争文学のように任意の型をもって発展してきたとは言い難い災害とテロリズムの物語が、その余波を描く過程で「戦後」表象のフォーマットと重複している点は注目に値する。