Literary Environmental Testimonies:

An East/Eastconversation in the works of IshimureMichiko and Abdel Rahman Munif on man-made environmental crises.

Munia Hweidi

Hyflex(Both in-person and on Zoom) format

June 29, 15:00-16:30

Room 301 (In person)

Zoom: Please register from here: https://forms.office.com/r/bRuurzVdVv

In a world increasingly aware of a rising environmental crisisand thelosses, both human and beyond,that result from such crises, we look towards ways to preserve and converse, as well as chronicle for future generations. Sciences and the humanities each play their roles in these efforts. This study looks at the role of literature in preserving traditions and testifying about the losses that highly traditional societiesexperience when industrialization encroaches upon theirspaces and damages the environment. By focusing on how Japanese author IshimureMichiko and Arab author Abdel Rahman Munif employ similar literary tactics to chronicle these traditional spaces, this study places these authors' works in conversation. In this conversation we trace how literaturecan be a part of the environmental dialogue centered onthedevastating effects of man-made environmental crisis and the resulting slow violence upon spaces that have had a sudden societal, traditional, and environmental shift after the encroachment of modernity and the resulting industrialization. This study concludes that perhaps in these literary chronicles and testimonies of the pastwe might find thebridge that will lead us towards a better future.

Munia Hweidiis a PhD Candidate in Japanese Studies at Sophia University's (Tokyo) Graduate Program in Global Studies. Hweidi'sresearch focuses onmodern Japanese and environmental literature. She is currently researching the works of IshimureMichiko with an eye towards the significance of place. Her dissertation focuses on opening an East/East literary dialogue between Arabic and Japanese literature. Hweidiis the organizer of the symposium, "Reinterpretation of Tradition under the New Global Normal: Beyond Human Space" (2021) and has participated in the Association for Asian Studies Conference and Osaka Graduate Conference in Japanese Studies(2022).

This event is organized by ProfessorAngela Yiu(FLA).

Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture

Web：https://www.icc-sophia.com/