"Tsuhima Yuko and the Ethics of Cohabitation"

Abstract

Borrowing from Judith Butler’s notion of the ethics of plural and heterogeneous cohabitation, this essay reads two of Tsushima Yūko’s novels in light of how they negotiate proximity and distance in forging ethical connections that constitutes such cohabitation; the first is her autobiographical work of mourning, On Grieving (2017). The second is the historical time-travel novel, Laughing Wolf (2000), crowded with humans and animals both spectral and real. The essay argues that reading these two modes of writing together can enhance the felt connection between the personal and the historical by turning thin relations into thick ones through the act of remembering. Articles at The Asia-Pacific Journal are published under a Creative Commons license. Permission is granted to forward electronically to others and to post Asia-Pacific Journal texts for non-commercial purposes following Creative Commons guidelines, provided they are reproduced intact and the source indicated and linked.