9·11 and 3·11, or at Ground Zero of Literature: Essays on the Theory of Disaster Literature 1

Abstract

In this article, the term “disaster literature” is narrowly defined: works submitted in response to actual historical disasters. Disaster literature will reflect the factual aspects of real disasters, and of particular importance will be the patterns of human behavior in times of disaster, rather than the disaster itself. This can be divided into social solidarity and social conflict. Disaster literature is a dual response to this. It joins or creates social solidarity and intervenes in social conflict to dismantle its basis. The first type can be called ‘healing narratives’. It verbalizes the suffering of the victims, gives it a figure and allows it to exist in the public sphere. The role of the healing narrative is to mediate social solidarity. The second type of narrative can be called ‘counter-narrative’. When a particular perception/narrative of disaster takes the place of the dominant narrative and triggers social conflict, disaster literature as a counter-narrative participates in the social narrative struggle by offering a different way of thinking about disaster (alternative disaster perception). This paper examines works that fulfil their roles as healing narratives and counter-narratives by taking the September 11 attacks and the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami as symbolic cases of social and natural disasters in the 21st century. In doing so, we will test the effectiveness of the concepts presented in this paper and lay the groundwork for the development of a theory of disaster literature.