Fuzzy Traumas: Animals and Errors in Contemporary Japanese Literature

In Fuzzy Traumas, Tyran Grillo critically examines the portrayal of companion animals in Japanese literature in the wake of the 1990s ＂pet boom.＂ Blurring the binary between human and nonhuman, Grillo draws on Japanese science fiction, horror, guide-dog stories, and a notorious essay on euthanasia, treating each work as a case study of human-animal relationships gone somehow awry. He makes an unprecedented case for Japan’s pet boom and how the country’s sudden interest in companion animals points to watershed examples of ＂productive errors＂ that provide necessary catalysts for change.

Examining symbiotic concepts of ＂humanity＂ and ＂animality,＂ Grillo challenges negative views of anthropomorphism as something unethical, redefining it as a necessary rupture in, not a bandage on, the thick skin of the human ego. Fuzzy Traumas concludes by introducing the paradigm shift of ＂postanimalism＂ as a detour from the current traffic jam of animal-centered philosophies, arguing that humanity cannot move past anthropocentricism until we reflect honestly on what it means for the human condition.

Tyran Grillo is an educator, scholar, author, photographer, and avid music critic. His research focuses on marginalized subjects in Japanese literature as well as critical disability theory writ large. He is the translator of The Running Boy and Other Stories, Parasite Eve, and other works.