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Fictions of Destruction: Post-1945 Narrative and Disaster in the Collective Imaginary

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Fictions of Destruction: Post-1945 Narrative and Disaster in the Collective Imaginary FICTIONS OF DESTRUCTION: POST-1945 NARRATIVE AND DISASTER IN THE COLLECTIVE IMAGINARY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Angela Becerra Vidergar June 2013 © 2013 by Angela Mercedes Becerra Vidergar. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/ct352yp0031 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Ramon Saldivar, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannes Gumbrecht, Co-Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Amir Eshel I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Ursula Heise Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii iv ABSTRACT In "Fictions of Destruction" I analyze post-1945 narratives that engage with the thematics and aesthetics of mass-scale destruction. The dissertation is based on the thesis that since the explosion of the atomic bombs, a shared imaginary of mass-scale disaster has developed that exhibits a set of concerns particular to the “Nuclear Age,” even while branching out into ecological, scientific and other possible sources of world-destruction. I first redefine the collective imaginary as a product of the oscillating, give-and-take relationship between cultural media and the individual’s experience of the world, particularly with the advancement of mass communication technologies. I then give a comparative study of North American narrative fiction, particularly in the U.S., that hone in on issues related to the experience of temporality. These include the trope of the broken road as a move away from the rhetoric of progress and enlightenment and instead toward the impending downfall of modernity; the heightened awareness of risk and how it changes perceptions of futurity; what tropes of disaster fiction such as ephemera, wastelands, and bunkers reveal regarding historicity and possible futures; and how survivor character types illustrate the oscillation between hope and despair through their positions along the spectrum between stasis and action. In addition to its basis in comparative literary studies, this dissertation engages with a variety of disciplines in the humanities such as philosophy, cultural studies, film and media studies and history. Source materials include novels, short stories, graphic narratives, film, television and gaming. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In a most profound way, Stanford has become a beloved home. I am deeply grateful for the collegiality and care I’ve found in this tight-knit community of mentors, colleagues and friends. You have proven time and again that intellectual work is anything but solitary, and in that spirit I dedicate this dissertation to the following people: To Ramón Saldívar: from our first visit I felt the excitement of intellectual kinship and recognized the combination of challenge and support that would transform me profoundly as a scholar and a person. To Sepp Gumbrecht: in our first meeting you told me to stop being nervous and just be myself. That advice is at the heart of what I’ve learned at Stanford: confidence in the power of my own ideas and the pluck to incorporate my interests in the “outside world” into my scholarship. Thank you both for leading me through the incredible intellectual and personal journey the last few years have been. I will continue to treasure you as colleagues and as dear friends. Amir Eshel and Ursula Heise: thank you for giving so much of your time and attention to the development of my ideas and for encouraging me to pursue my intellectual passions. Russell Berman and Andrea Lunsford: thank you for inspiring me to excel and innovate as an educator. Your office doors have been as open as your minds are to new ideas and approaches and your courses have triggered avenues of thought that have helped shape my work in many exciting ways. Thank you for guiding me to do the same for others. To Gwendolyn Díaz at St. Mary’s University: thank you for first giving me the opportunity to become a literary scholar, and for showing me how far it could take me. vi Haerin Shin: from our first meeting you became my best friend and constant intellectual partner—from founding The Graphic Narrative Project to watching K- Dramas over kimchi. Our collaborations have triggered many of my own research breakthroughs and our friendship has given me energy and relief during the difficult stages. Bronwen Tate: you are an inspiration in so many ways. May our families continue to share in friendship for many, many years to come. Thank you also to the other amazing ladies of my cohort and the many delightful, brilliant colleagues I had the privilege of meeting in the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages. Very special thanks to Todd, Denise, Margaret, Chris, Diane and Lucas: you really do go above and beyond. To my son William: Your sweetness and energy light up my life, even while I study stories of darkness. You were born almost at the same time as this dissertation. I have now finished my degree, but you are my life’s greatest project and I pray I will do well by it. Mami y Papi: You taught me to read books, to love them, and to ask questions about them. Your unconditional gifts of love, time, counsel and faith in the strength of God keep me going. Finally, the most heartfelt of thanks to Alex: partner in friendship, marriage and parenthood, constant provider of ideas, editing, a ready shoulder for the hard times, and best of all—fun. You know better than anyone else what has gone into finishing this project and have contributed most to its completion day by day. Thank you for keeping me anchored in the things that really matter! The following dissertation contains bits and pieces of all of you, and for that I am deeply grateful. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: Philosophical Grounding of a Shared Imaginary.........................................................….13 Chapter Two: The Broken Road to the Future: The Destruction of a Metaphor of Progress…………..35 Chapter Three: Bunkering Down: The Preservation of the Past and Protection of the Future…………..71 Chapter Four: Survivor’s Guide to Hope and Despair………………………………………………...112 Closing Remarks..……………………………………………………………………...185 Works Cited….....……………………………………………………………………...191 1 INTRODUCTION After the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, following the highly destructive earthquake and tsunami, the undercurrent of apocalyptic themes in cultural media jumped to the front pages of magazines, news websites and editorials. Newsweek’s cover for its March 28 and April 4, 2011 double issue features an ominous black tsunami and the equally ominous words from the 1979 film: “APOCALYPSE NOW,” subtitled “Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Nuclear Meltdowns, Revolutions, Economies on the Brink, What the #@%! is Next?” Nuclear anxiety and the fear of natural disasters are prominently present in current dialogues around the world, as well as in the literary environment. “Tokyo Disaster Fantasies,” a March 20, 2011 article by William Tsutsui, is focused on how “[m]ovies, comics, and videogames have obsessively imagined Japan’s destruction, mirroring the country’s real-world vulnerability.” Junot Diaz’s May article for the Boston Review, entitled “Apocalypse: What Disasters Reveal,” centers on the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. In his article, Diaz brings up the commonly misconstrued definition of “apocalypse.” In the spirit of the true root of the word from the Greek apokalypsis, to uncover or unveil, this dissertation is a project to uncover the particularities of post-1945 narratives that engage either directly or indirectly with the thematics and aesthetics of mass-scale destruction, thereby revealing the characteristics of a modern collective imaginary of disaster. Today’s world moves within a zeitgeist of risk, anxiety and a hyperawareness of potential threats to the future of modern society and even humankind as a whole. While the apocalyptic imaginary has been around for thousands of years, particularly in 2 religious contexts, the events and developments of the past century have pushed mass- scale disaster into the forefront of secular cultural channels. In the following chapter I will focus on these modern incarnations of the (post)apocalyptic that, while influenced by those religious contexts, are now prolifically created and disseminated outside of them. These post-1945 fictions of destruction reveal a shift since the mid-20th century in the ways we imagine the future: predominantly as a catalog of possible disasters. As is evident in my choice of the year 1945 as a starting point, I find the dawn of the Nuclear Age to be key among the various factors contributing to this collective imaginary of disaster. The development of new weapons of mass-scale destruction and the demonstration of their destructive capacity with the 1945 explosion of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a massive global impact by making people aware of a new height in our ability to destroy within a frighteningly brief period of time.
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