Eating after the triple disaster : new meanings of food in three post-3.11 texts
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Asian Studies, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Gai, Rosaley
issued: 2020-08-21T20:31:33Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Known colloquially as “3.11,” the triple disaster that struck Japan’s northeastern region of Tōhoku on March 11, 2011 comprised of both natural (the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami) and humanmade (the nuclear meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incurred due to post-earthquake damage) disasters. In the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, there was an outpouring of media reacting to and reflecting on the great loss of life and resulting nuclear contamination of the nearby land and sea of the region. Thematically, food plays a large role in many post-3.11 narratives, both through the damage and recovery of local food systems after the natural disasters and the radiation contamination that to this day stigmatizes regionally grown food. This thesis seeks to examine the new meanings of food in three Japanese-language texts produced after 3.11. First, I examine Kawakami Hiromi’s (1958 - ) “Kamisama” (1994) and its rewritten version “Kamisama 2011” (2011) to consider the textual construction of human and animal bodies and their interaction with food and environment through a salted fish, made newly inedible in the 2011 version, to consider the new potential of food after 3.11. Next, I examine loss and anxiety tied to geographical place, as well as the portrayal of “truth” in the post-3.11 chapters of Kariya Tetsu’s (1941 - ) controversial and long-running manga about food, Oishinbo (1980 - present). Finally, I consider the ways that post-3.11 thought has influenced the representation and issues of food in “Iganu no ame” (2014), a short science fiction story by popular idol and writer Katō Shigeaki (1987 - ), in order to consider ways that precarity now includes shifts and changes in eating after the triple disaster. In these three texts, I find common themes of memory and intimacy through food, mistrust toward the “official” positions on the safety of food after 3.11, and the articulation of new anxie…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/75619
note: EATING AFTER THE TRIPLE DISASTER: NEW MEANINGS OF FOOD IN THREE POST-3.11 TEXTS by ROSALEY GAI B.A., The University of Chicago, June 2016 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2020 © Rosaley Gai, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Eating After the Triple Disaster: New Meanings of Food in Three Post-3.11 Texts submitted by Rosaley Gai in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Asian Studies Examining Committee: Sharalyn Orbaugh, Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisor Christina Yi, Associate Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Ayaka Yoshimizu, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Known colloquially as “3.11,” the triple disaster that struck Japan’s northeastern region of Tōhoku on March 11, 2011 comprised of both natural (the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami) and humanmade (the nuclear meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incurred due to post-earthquake damage) disasters. In the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, there was an outpouring of media reacting to and reflecting on the great loss of life and resulting nuclear contamination of the nearby land and sea of the region. Thematically, food plays a large role in many post-3.11 narratives, both through the damage and recovery of local food systems after the natural disasters and the radiation contamination that to this day stigmatizes regionally grown food. This thesis seeks to examine the new meanings of food in three Japanese-language texts produced after 3.11. First, I examine Kawakami Hiromi’s (1958 - ) “Kamisama” (1994) …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0392892
language: eng
degree discipline: Asian Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/75619