Abstract
Murakami Haruki is one of the most prestigious Japanese novelists alive who gains a phenomenal readership around the world. One of the major discourse handled in Murakami’s oeuvre is ‘the other world’—a world that is both co-existing with and beyond reality. In three decades the form, function and implication of ‘the other world’ in Murakami Literature has been developed, extended, alternated and transtextualized. The oeuvre of Murakami presents multidimensions and complexity of time, space and metaphor. The first part of this paper is aiming to discuss the representation of ‘the other world’ in Murakami’s works in different periods—Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore—with interpretation of their implications respectively. The analysis will be contextualized. After the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, Murakami Haruki initiated his interviews book Underground with the gas attack victims and further investigated the perpetrators— the cult Aum Shinrikyo—through his interviews with several former cult followers. Part I of the thesis will examine how such issues take on in Murakami’s ‘the other world’ and how did they changed its connotations.
The second part of this paper deals with the reception of Murakami Haruki’s works in China. Popular literature gains largest readership in post-Tiananmen era in China dues to the policy changing toward economy and culture. Three stages publications of Murakami literature shape a petty bourgeoisie image of Murakami’s novels. Murakami becomes a popular culture icon among young readers in China. Chinese scholars employ Chinese philosophy to interpret Murakami literature, which give us a glimpse of how Chinese read Murakami into their local culture. Several motifs have been highlighted among Chinese in reading Murakami Literature such as the works take on of war history, traumatic memories, student movement, spirit searching.