Haruki Murakami - Storytelling and Productive Distance

Haruki Murakami: Storytelling and Productive Distance studies the evolution of the monogatari, or narrative and storytelling in the works of Haruki Murakami. Author Chikako Nihei argues that Murakami's power of monogatari lies in his use of distancing effects; storytelling allows individuals to "cross" into a different context, through which they can effectively observe themselves and reality. His belief in the importance of monogatari is closely linked to his generation's experience of the counter-­--culture movement in the late1960s and his research on the 1995 Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack caused by the Aum shinrikyo cult, major events in postwar Japan that revealed many people's desire for a stable narrative to interact with and form their identity from.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 Distancing Japanese literary tradition: Monogatari and language
3 "Departure" from the distrust of language: Narration as engagement
4 Narrativising memories: Murakami’s attempt at a realist novel in Norwegian Wood
5 Distance within, will to imagine, and power of metaphor in Kafka on the Shore
6 Writing in the space in-between: Murakami’s exploration of cross-cultural effects
7 Conclusion: Monogatari as an antibody, 1Q84 and stories after "Fukushima"
Index

About the author

Chikako Nihei is an assistant professor at Yamaguchi University. She received her PhD in Japanese at the University of Sydney. Her publications include "The Productivity of a Space In-between: Murakami Haruki as a Translator" (2016) and "Resistance and Negotiation: The ‘Herbivorous Men’ and Murakami Haruki’s Gender and Political Ambiguity" (2013).

Summary

This book studies the evolution of the monogatari, or narrative and storytelling in the works of Haruki Murakami.

Product details

• Authors: Chikako Nihei
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 13.12.2021
• EAN: 9781032241197
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3224119-7
• No. of pages: 182
• Series: Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / General, Japanese, LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Japanese, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000