Aum Shinrikyō and fiction. Works that inspired – or were inspired by – Aum

Talk by Prof Antonin Bechler

Hosted by Prof Helen Lee

Moderated by Prof Valérie Gelézeau

27 May, 17:00 – 18:30

The Institute for the Comparative Studies of Society and Culture, UIC, Yonsei University
Daewoo Annex 105

Aum Shinrikyō and fiction. Works that inspired – or were inspired by – Aum

Aum Shinrikyō, a Japanese new religious cult led by Asahara Shōkō, drew on various cultural sources to construct a radical ideology, and attempted to superimpose its own fiction onto reality, culminating in the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo. Famous Japanese fiction writers such as Ōe Kenzaburō (Chūgaeri, 1999), Murakami Haruki (Underground, 1997-98), Nakamura Fuminori (Kyōdan X, 2014) or Furukawa Hideo (Mandarage X, 2022) reacted to the affair. This presentation will revisit their works and discourses addressing this matter, while also exploring the common cultural substrate upon which the cult elaborated its doctrine.

Antonin Bechler is an Associate Professor at Strasbourg University, and currently researcher at the French Research Institute on Japan at the Maison Franco-Japonaise (IFRJ). He studies contemporary Japanese fiction and its relation to ethical, political and religious beliefs. He directed the French edition of Ōe Kenzaburō’s collected works (including his own translations) by Gallimard, and co-directed a collective book on Murakami Haruki by Seikyūsha.