Erickson Hall
620 Farm Ln, East Lansing, MI 48824
USA
Hard Rain Falling: Japanese Twitterature and the End of the World
This talk examines the history of the Twitter novel in Japan and the use of that form in the immediate aftermath of the triple disasters of March 11, 2011. When the earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima catastrophes struck, telephone connections were disrupted and mainstream media failed to provide the immediate news citizens craved. So many turned to social media for facts streaming from the disasters, while a subset of the population took solace in fiction and poetry posted on those same venues. This talk examines the ways the short, micro, or flash fiction posted on twitter helped readers cope with the trauma, understand the events, and re-imagine possible futures.
Reception to follow.
Jonathan E. Abel is an Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Penn State University. His recent work looks at the history of new media in Japan in order to examine the interrelations of representations and reality.
Sponsors and funding support by: Asian Studies Center, Japan Foundation of New York