James Wronoski

Research Area(s) Description

I completed my B.A. in French Literature at Occidental College in 2018, with minors in Philosophy, Critical Theory and Social Justice, and Japanese. My current area of study includes modern and contemporary Japanese literature, poetry, and—occasionally—visual art. In particular, my proposed research topic looks at the relationship between the arts and disaster (both natural and human provoked), making reference to new materialist, feminist, environmental, and ecocritical thought. The arts—and particularly literature—in contemporary Japan suggest paths forward from the myriad aporiae implicit in the ‘wicked problem’ of climate change and climate disaster—my project pursues these paths, situating the literature of writers such as Kawakami Hiromi, Kawakami Mieko, Matsuda Aoko, Murata Sayaka, Kobayashi Erika, Tawada Yōkō, Ōyamada Hiroko, and Tsushima Yūko at the center of a literary nexus in which the delicate balance of environment, disaster, disease, capitalist exploitation, phenomenological orientation, religion, gender and feminism have reached a tipping point. That tipping point, I believe, may be the critical juncture beyond which we move towards overcoming the pessimisms of capitalist eco-modernity and into a more just, and sustainable relationship between human beings and the world.

I completed my B.A. in French Literature at Occidental College in 2018, with minors in Philosophy, Critical Theory and Social Justice, and Japanese. My current area of study includes modern and contemporary Japanese literature, poetry, and—occasionally—visual art. In particular, my proposed research topic looks at the relationship between the arts and disaster (both natural and human provoked), making reference to new materialist, feminist, environmental, and ecocritical thought. The arts—and particularly literature—in contemporary Japan suggest paths forward from the myriad aporiae implicit in the ‘wicked problem’ of climate change and climate disaster—my project pursues these paths, situating the literature of writers such as Kawakami Hiromi, Kawakami Mieko, Matsuda Aoko, Murata Sayaka, Kobayashi Erika, Tawada Yōkō, Ōyamada Hiroko, and Tsushima Yūko at the center of a literary nexus in which the delicate balance of environment, disaster, disease, capitalist exploitation, phenomenological orientation, religion, gender and feminism have reached a tipping point. That tipping point, I believe, may be the critical juncture beyond which we move towards overcoming the pessimisms of capitalist eco-modernity and into a more just, and sustainable relationship between human beings and the world.

James Wronoski

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