Disasters, nonhumans, and the environment: ecocritical and ecolinguistic analyses of Japanese disaster narratives

Bush, Emily 2026. Disasters, nonhumans, and the environment: ecocritical and ecolinguistic analyses of Japanese disaster narratives. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Disaster narratives that centre biocentric perspectives play a crucial role in revealing the interconnectedness between humans, nonhumans, and the environment. Such narratives offer more holistic and inclusive ways of understanding disasters and their far-reaching consequences. This thesis brings together ecocriticism and ecolinguistics to examine Japanese disaster narratives in literature, film, and video games. Through this approach, it explores how ideas related to disasters, nonhumans, and the environment are narrated and imagined in cultural products. In doing so, this research addresses two significant gaps. First, it addresses a gap in disaster research, which has largely neglected the physical and cultural dimensions of disasters. Second, it contributes to ecocriticism by expanding its scope beyond its traditional focus on Anglophone literary texts and by focusing on disaster narratives. This thesis therefore starts a broader interdisciplinary discussion about the value of analysing disaster narratives in relation to disaster research, the environmental humanities, and Japanese cultural studies. The analysis is based on close readings of Japanese disaster narratives that foreground nonhumans, the environment, or both. I examine ideas creators have about disasters, nonhumans, and the environment through the various discussions, characters, and settings that are present in the disaster narratives they create, and analyse the ways in which creators critique, renegotiate, or promote these ideas. Close attention is paid to the language creators use when exploring topics such as writing about disasters or the anthropomorphising of nonhuman characters. Lastly, this thesis considers how these narratives shape new ideas about living with and after crises and with nonhumans and the environment. Read ecocritically, Japanese disaster narratives are essential to the ongoing work of environmental humanities and to the broader cultural project of envisioning ethical ways of living with disaster in an era of increasing environmental change.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Modern Languages
Funders:	Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 September 2026
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2026 08:40
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189561

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