The Nuclear Sublime and Gerald Vizenor’s Senses of Presence and Absence in Hiroshima Bugi: Atomu 57 (2003)

By still suggesting fraught and distant experiences of overpowering phenomena, traditional
theories of the sublime such as the “natural sublime” fail to deliver on the aesthetic and
imaginative challenges brought about by the Anthropocene. The nuclear or atomic sublime
builds on the natural sublime’s “terrible beauty” initiated by the likes of Burke and Kant to
aestheticize objects and landscapes such as the mushroom cloud and nuclear test sites which
still leave the human subject in a state of “petrified awe” (Shukin 2020) and devoid of any sense
of responsibility (Ferguson 1984; Wilson 1989; Hales 1991). Most phenomena associated with
the nuclear sublime are, however, often invisible (e.g., radiation and nuclear waste) and have
led writers and (environmental) humanities scholars to seek imaginative ways of representing
imperceptible or concealed forms of ecological disruption caused by atomic power. This
presentation will consider Gerald Vizenor’s “kabuki” novel Hiroshima Bugi: Atomu 57 (2003)
as a case study for exploring the limits and affordances of (1) using the (nuclear) sublime as a
strategy for figuring non/human materiality and (2) thinking in terms of presence and absence
in the Anthropocene. Lastly, this presentation will undertake a narratological and rhetorical
analysis of Vizenor’s experimental metaphors related to his senses of presence and absence in
order to critically interrogate the potential of highly figurative language for countering the
atomic sublime and for providing answers to the representational and ontological crises of the
Anthropocene.