Event Details:

This talk examines the history of the Twitter novel in Japan and the use if that form in the immediate aftermath of the triple diadter of March 11, 2011. When the earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushiman catastrophes struck , telephone connections were dirsupted and mainstream media failed to provide immediate news citizens craved. So many turned to social media for facts streaming from the disasters, while a subset of the population took solace in fiction and poetry posted on those same venues. This talk examines the ways the short, micro, or flash fiction posted on twitter helped readers cope with the trauma, understand the events, and re-imagine possible futures.

Jonothan E. Abel is an Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Penn State University. His recent work looks at the history of new media in Japan in order to examine the interrelations of representations and reality.

Reception to follow.