An Interdiscplinary Study of Food Discourses and Environmental Views in Contemporary Japanese and American Literature

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520424
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literatures/Literary theories in other countries and areas
• Research Institution: Kanazawa University
• Principal Investigator: YUKI Masami 金沢大学, 外国語教育研究センター, 教授 (50303699)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: エコクリティシズム / 環境文学 / 食 / 汚染の言説 / 水俣 / チェルノブイリ / 福島 / 環境人文学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research examined attitudes to the environment in literary and social discourses on food and eating primarily in Japan and the United States, with a critical focus on issues of toxicity. There are two major findings. 1. In literary approaches to food and toxicity, there is a subtle yet continuous focus on local people’s act of eating local food while knowing of its toxicity. This stands in sharp contrast with the major social attention to food risks and safety. Examining various discourses, this research elucidated a much broader and deeper perspective of literary practices which encompass different values. 2. Comparing American literary approaches, this research found that a focus on people’s knowingly eating locally sourced toxic food is recognized mostly in Japanese literature. This might reflect a difference between a shared interest in human kinship with nature in Japan and that of the environmental turn in the United States, as argued in this research.

Free Research Field

環境文学