Imagining an Abandoned Land Listening to the Departed after Fukushima

In 2011 the March 11 event in Japan (a major earthquake tsunami and nuclear accident) has entirely reversed the sense of reality and values of Japanese people. In an attempt to deal with this catastrophe scientists medical experts politicians sociologists and journalists have taken concrete and effective measures. With regard to humanities what effective contribution can be made by this discipline which in different ways aims to question the activities of humanity? Catastrophic events constitute historical moments in which the limits between humans and nature humans and civilization and humans and history are the most exposed thus forcing us to radically rethink these concepts and our reality. Indeed language and imagination are powerless against catastrophes. However it is only after being exposed to the experience of powerlessness that we can turn to a reality that cannot be responded to without language and image.