The “Literature of the Catastrophe” as a Canon: from Genbaku Bungaku to Fukushima Bungaku

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” in itself. While the literature about Shoah got a foothold as Holocaust novel, the Japanese genbaku bungaku was instead refused by the Japanese 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 production, 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 involved in the process of transposing into words the trauma related to disasters that occurred in the country and the necessary efforts to overcome them. This brief paper provides an excursus of the critical debate concerning the relation between literature and canon to define the literary responses to catastrophe. On 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 trauma not only in poetic and narrative forms but also on social media.