Open Collections

The multiple worlds of Murakami Haruki

University of British Columbia

The focus of this thesis is Murakami's consistent textual evocations of a parallel world-within-a-world motif. By examining works in which these narrative constructs are most prominent, the analysis will delineate and clarify the structures and thematic significance of such constructs within his fictions and their function in the creation and,even, interpretation of Murakami's other realms. This thesis will also explore the possibilities of links, whether conscious or unconscious, between Murakami's fictions and a modern Japanese literary paradigm for which the term, Mukogawa ('the other-side') fiction, has been coined. It is hoped that the structural and thematic analyses outlined above might aid in the tracing of connections to a Japanese literary tradition with which, according to most critics, Murakami's fictions have nothing in common. By examining similar topoi and textual manifestations of difference, I hope that certain aspects of his fictions will better stand out. At the same time, recognizing the need to keep one eye open to recent critical studies, I will incorporate aspects of theoretical approaches to Magic Realism, a literary phenomenon not unlike mukogawa fiction, that might better enable my analysis of the recurring fantasylike parallel worlds of Murakami and shed more light on his relation to a literary tradition that developed out of the perceived sense of 'loss' (identity, culture, roots) that occurred during the rapid modernization of Japan from the Meiji period onwards.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-03-11

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/5909

Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace