The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Doug Slaymaker and his talk "Animal Stories: Furukawa Hideo and the Narration of Disaster" on November 14.
A surprising number of animals appear in the fictional representations of the March 11, 2011 disasters in Japan. Why?It runs from 5:00 to 6:30 pm in the Alcoa Room of the Barco Law Building (map).
My hunch is that the portrayal of animal interiorities and the portrayal of disaster are linked by narrative challenges and techniques: they are both "impossible." Furukawa Hideo has been writing through animals for some time, and with added poignancy after the Tohoku disasters. This presentation focuses on Furukawa's exploration of the fictional possibilities, and limits, of portraying animal interiorities in fiction.