La poesia nucleare di Yoko Tawada: contaminazioni della quotidianità dopo Fukushima

On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by the strongest earthquake in its recorded history, followed by a tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This disaster wrought unmeasurable harm to human and environmental health, and compelled people to rethink daily life in a contaminated area. In the works of Japanese-German writer Yoko Tawada, Fukushima plays a central role, especially in prose texts. Her poems written in the aftermath of the incident have received scant critical attention. This paper addresses that gap by analyzing the cycle out of sight (2020). It examines ‘nuclear poetry’ as a narrative response to major nuclear disasters of the 20th century. Its objective is to highlight the ecocritical and political implications of nuclear energy discourse and to show how Tawada’s poetry reflects the invisible yet pervasive presence of radiation. This presence contaminates daily life and language itself, reshaping perceptions and altering our understanding of common concepts, such as time and nature.