소설 「참사 이후, 참사 이전(惨事のあと、 惨事のまえ)」을 통해 본 3.11 동일본대지진

Abstract

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which took place on March 11th 2011, made scholars of Japanese literature ponder upon the role of literature. As a result, the collection of fiction March Was Made of Yarn(それでも３月は、また) was published. The collection pointed out the problems that arose while the Japanese society and the Japanese government were trying to cope with the disaster. This paper focuses on one work from the collection, “After the Disaster, Before the Disaster”(惨事のあと、惨事のまえ) by David Peace. The writer of the fiction brings the readers back to the time of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. This paper looks into the way the writer compared the 1923 earthquake with the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It also observes the way the fiction criticizes the society. The name of the main character Akutagawa Ryunosuke(芥川龍之介) is that of a real person in history. It feels as if Ryunosuke in the fiction is the same person as the real Akutagawa. In addition, the writer describes the mass murder of Koreans during the time of the Great Kantō Earthquake. This serious conflict described in the fiction shows the way people expressed their patriotic spirit in the state of exception. At the same time, the writer indirectly criticizes the so-called “unity” of the people, which justified the massacre as a means to minimize confusion amid an emergency. In this way, the fiction is pointing out the changes in the Japanese society after the Tōhoku earthquake.