- Convenors:
-
Darin Tenev
(Sofia University)
Shiho Nishihara (Tohoku University)
Hiromi Motohashi (Aichi Prefectural University)
Makoto Takagi (Sagami Women's University)
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Darin Tenev
(Sofia University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Modern Literature
Short Abstract
The panel will address the narratological challenges offered by Tawada's trilogy. The papers (1) will analyze the narrative structure of the novels; (2) they will focus on the functions of intertextuality; and (3), will demonstrate how the trilogy addresses pressing contemporary issues.
Long Abstract
Tawada Yoko’s trilogy, consisting of "Scattered All Over the Earth" (2018), "Suggested by the Stars" (2020), and "Archipelago of the Sun" (2022), is one of the important literary events in recent years not only in Japan but also on the scene of world literature. The trilogy tells the story of Hiruko, a Japanese girl in Europe, left alone after the mysterious disappearance of the “land of sushi”, who goes in search of anyone who can still speak her language, together with an improbable group of friends. The fictional setting of the three novels, which is neither dystopian, nor post-apocalyptic, nor climate fiction, and yet draws on all these genres, allows for the story to develop in an unpredictable manner and constantly to question memory, identity, desire, and language.
The way it is written, the work offers a narratological challenge. The panel will address this challenge from a variety of perspectives. First, the papers in the panel will offer analyses of the narrative structure of the novels, including the use of polyphonic narration with different voices for each chapter, the interplay of sequences, the role of various linguistic strata and experiments, etc. Second, the papers will focus on the function of intertextuality. On the one hand, they will show in what way and to what end Tawada refers implicitly or explicitly to her own earlier works (autotextuality), and how this opens unexpected perspectives, for example, on the question of the animal and the relation with the environment. On the other hand, they will outline the place of implementation of mythical elements, starting with the main protagonist’s name Hiruko, and the name of another protagonist, Susanoo. Third, the papers will demonstrate how the trilogy addresses pressing contemporary issues with the use of its writing technique and story-telling mechanisms. These issues include the climate change, precarious work, international relations, gender troubles, intergenerational communication etc.
The goal of the panel is twofold: (1) to shed new light on this important literary work of art, and (2) to show how purely formal narrative devices contribute to the questioning of the present-day situation.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
I will focus on the role played by modalities from different groups interweaved together in the trilogy. I will analyze the multimodal logic of the story starting with the relationship between perceptive modalities and volitive modalities and show how the possible is redefined in Tawada's fiction.
Paper long abstract
Tawada Yoko’s trilogy tells the story of the bizarre quest of an improbable group of people for the traces of the vanished “land of sushi” through the question of language, memory and their relationship. Tawada’s work poses various challenges to narratology including the play with focalisations, the logic of the story combining necessity and contingency, the structure of narrative sequences, the interplay between linguistic invention and the story line, etc.
In my paper I will show the key function in the structuring of the narrative played by modalities from different modal groups (alethic, deontic, boulomaic, cognitive and others), interweaved together. I will analyze the multimodal logic of the story starting with the relationship between perceptive modalities (what the main protagonists see or hear) and boulomaic modalities (i.e. modalities that have to do with desire) and proceeding to the redefinition of the possible in fiction. In this, I will follow closely the role of language invention, and not just that of the Panska langage, the language invented by Hiruko, the main protagonist, but also that of Susanoo, or of Munn and Vita in the beginning of the second volume, etc. In the final part of the paper, I will comment briefly the role intertextuality plays in the entanglement of modalities and will analyze the indexical function of modal operators.
Paper short abstract
The paper will focus on the intertextual references in Tawada’s trilogy to mythology with a stress on the mythological structure of drifting. I will focus on the mode of drifting and I will discuss the structural disparity arising from the fact that the work is composed as a trilogy.
Paper long abstract
Archipelago of the Sun is the third volume of Tawada Yoko’s trilogy, preceded by Scattared All Over the Earth and Suggested by the Stars. In this final part the journey of the main protagonist Hiruko, who has invented and uses an artificial language called “Panska” (Pan-Scandinavian), takes the characters to the sea and there they become even more loquacious. The journey to the vanished native country of Hiruko is hindered, but the protagonists’ drifting reaches a conclusion when Hiruko positions herself as a “home” or an “island”. Their story is always told in the first person and it travels through space-time and texts but among all the references and intertextual suggestions, it seems that the framework of mythology is the most important. Its influence has to do not only with citations but also with the very mythological structure of the protagonists’ drifting and the place they reach in the end. In my paper I will focus on the mode of drifting and I will discuss the structural disparity arising from the fact that the work is composed as a trilogy.
Paper short abstract
The paper offers a narratological analysis of the polyphonic composition of Tawada’s trilogy with a stress on the use of many narrators with different backgrounds. I will focus on the narrative differences and offer an explication of their role.
Paper long abstract
Already from the first of its volumes, Scattered All Over the Earth, Tawada Yoko’s trilogy uses different narrators for each chapter. The narrators are people who come from various places and are with different backgrounds, gender identities, nationalities, native languages, everyday linguistic styles, and social positions. Tawada combines their narratives without introducing an omniscient narrator and in this way structures the text through insistently polyphonic narration. This polyphonic composition produces differences mot only between the narrative voices, but also in one and the same voice as the story progresses from chapter to chapter.
My paper will analyze the function of these differences in Tawada’s work and their relationship to the overall structure of the text.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 『地球に散りばめられて』に始まる多和田葉子三部作は、各章の語り手が違っている。性別、国籍、出身地、現在の居住地、母語そして日常的に使用する言語、社会的立場の違う人々が、語り手となっている。 多声的な語りによって構造化されるテクストである。すると、各章ごとでの語り手の声に差異が発生する。また、同一人物でも、章が違うと発話の形態に違いが発生してくる。 このような発話の差異が、テクストの構造化とどのように関わるのか。それを論点とする。 |
Paper short abstract
The paper will focus on the intertextual relationship between Tawada’s trilogy and her earlier work Memoirs of a Polar Bear, with a stress on the problem of translation from animal languages. I will discuss whether her narrative can be read as a translation and whether it usurps the source language.
Paper long abstract
Tawada Yoko’s trilogy (Scattered All Over the Earth; Suggested by the Stars; and Archipelago of the Sun) features characters who speak various languages. It is worth noting that the names of some of the characters, including two of the main protagosits, Knut and Nanook, are reminiscent of polar bears, especially if one takes into account the fact that “Knut” is precisely the name of one of the polar bears in her own celebrated work Memoirs of a Polar Bear. The novel Memoirs of a Polar Bear has been interpreted as a kind of “translation” of the polar bear’s narration. The “translation” of animal language is always accompanied by ethical questions such as: Can it truly convey the inner thoughts of animals, or is it merely an appropriation of their voices?
In my paper, drawing analogies between Tawada’s trilogy and her earlier works, I will discuss the questions whether her narrative can be read as a translation; what is the relationship between this translation and the translation from animal languages; and finally, how does such a translation deal with the risk of usurping and appropriating the source language.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 様々な言語を話す登場人物の語りという設定で構成される多和田葉子三部作（『地球に散りばめられて』『星に仄めかされて』『太陽諸島』）においては、クヌートやナヌークという、白熊を思わせる名前の人物が登場する。「クヌート」は多和田の代表作である『雪の練習生』に登場する白熊の名前でもあり、『雪の練習生』は白熊の語りの一種の「翻訳」と言える。動物のことばの「翻訳」には、動物の内面を語ることができるのか、動物の語りの簒奪ではないのかという倫理的問題が常につきまとう。そこで、動物のことばの「翻訳」や簒奪という観点と関連させて、三部作の語りについて考察したい。 |