Paper short abstract:

A paradigm shift from ‘victimhood’ to ‘survivor’ enables a new perspective on disaster literature. Investigating modes of survival in In the Zone challenges the understanding of disaster as a paralyzing event to frame it as a starting point for recovery from previous traumas.

Paper long abstract:

Victimhood is an idea often entrenched in several discourses about environmental disaster and its afterward effects on people and nature alike. Disaster stricken communities are shifted, by the media and social responses, to the realm of victimhood. Yet, the term and concept of victimhood bear negative connotations, confining those who are affected to a role of passivity, stillness, and inactivity. Hence, shifting the focus from the paralyzing character of victimhood to a more positive and affirming paradigm could both empower communities affected by disasters and provide a new analytical tool for ecocritical studies. Smith (2017) suggested a transition from the idea of victim to the concept of survivor ‘in terms of moving from a state of paralysis, hopelessness, and quiet desperation to one of agency, enablement, and willful resistance’ (2017). Thus, this paper investigates modes of surviving through the narrative voices for personal recovery, change, and compassion that are engendered by an environmental disaster. By way of an analysis of Taguchi Randy’s In the Zone 『ゾーンにて』this paper will challenge the understanding of disaster only as a victimizing event and will broaden the understanding of the idea of ‘survivor’ in this context. The characters in the four stories in In the Zone have, all in different ways, witnessed or have been affected by the 3.11 disaster. The nuclear disaster, however, rather than being a paralyzing experience, becomes a starting point to recover from - or as a way of reckoning with - previous traumas. The characters, who move in and out of the exclusion zone, despite being affected by the 3.11 events in different ways, are all survivors of some sort of traumatic experience, and the environmental disaster morphs into a force enabling them to find the strength to face their traumas. Highlighting that, in the end: ‘we are all survivors’ (Lindahl 2017).