Itō Seikō’s mourning voice(s)

Abstract

Two years after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese author Itō Seikō achieved a resounding success among both his readership and the literary critique with the novel Sōzō Rajio 『想像ラジオ』, the atypical story of a radio program whose main protagonists are the deceased. Ten years later, on the occasion of the 10th year anniversary from the disaster, the nonfictional work entitled Fukushima monoroogu 『福島モノローグ』has made its appearance on the bookshelves. This late publication brings back the voices of the Daishinsai survivors in a specular fashion in comparison with the previous work, eliciting the misleading juxtaposition fiction-death, nonfiction-life.

While in the Sōzō Rajio novel the radio plays the role of a fictitious locus which, by mimicking the therapeutic session between DJ/therapist and listener/patient, enables victims’ acting out of their trauma, in the Fukushima monoroogu reportage the author’s presence outshines to leave room for witness’ testimonies.

By drawing from the research by the psychologist John Bowlby regarding mourning and loss, this paper explores Itō Seikō’s response to the 2011 catastrophe by comparing authorial fictional and nonfictional productions, thus emphasizing the value attributed by the writer to victim’s mourning voices.