The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami
Title | The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Carl Strecher |
Publisher | U of Minnesota Press |
Total Pages | 347 |
Release | 2014-10-01 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1452943060 |
In an “other world” composed of language—it could be a fathomless Martian well, a labyrinthine hotel or forest—a narrative unfolds, and with it the experiences, memories, and dreams that constitute reality for Haruki Murakami’s characters and readers alike. Memories and dreams in turn conjure their magical counterparts—people without names or pasts, fantastic animals, half-animals, and talking machines that traverse the dark psychic underworld of this writer’s extraordinary fiction. Fervently acclaimed worldwide, Murakami’s wildly imaginative work in many ways remains a mystery, its worlds within worlds uncharted territory. Finally in this book readers will find a map to the strange realm that grounds virtually every aspect of Murakami’s writing. A journey through the enigmatic and baffling innermost mind, a metaphysical dimension where Murakami’s most bizarre scenes and characters lurk, The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami exposes the psychological and mythological underpinnings of this other world. Matthew Carl Strecher shows how these considerations color Murakami’s depictions of the individual and collective soul, which constantly shift between the tangible and intangible but in this literary landscape are undeniably real. Through these otherworldly depths The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami also charts the writer’s vivid “inner world,” whether unconscious or underworld (what some Japanese critics call achiragawa, or “over there”), and its connectivity to language. Strecher covers all of Murakami’s work—including his efforts as a literary journalist—and concludes with the first full-length close reading of the writer’s newest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.
The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami
Title | The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Strecher |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 292 |
Release | 2014-08-14 |
Genre | LITERARY CRITICISM |
ISBN | 9781452943053 |
In an OC other worldOCO composed of languageOCoit could be a fathomless Martian well, a labyrinthine hotel or forestOCoa narrative unfolds, and with it the experiences, memories, and dreams that constitute reality for Haruki MurakamiOCOs characters and readers alike. Memories and dreams in turn conjure their magical counterpartsOCopeople without names or pasts, fantastic animals, half-animals, and talking machines that traverse the dark psychic underworld of this writerOCOs extraordinary fiction. Fervently acclaimed worldwide, MurakamiOCOs wildly imaginative work in many ways remains a mystery, its worlds within worlds uncharted territory. Finally in this book readers will find a map to the strange realm that grounds virtually every aspect of MurakamiOCOs writing. A journey through the enigmatic and baffling innermost mind, a metaphysical dimension where MurakamiOCOs most bizarre scenes and characters lurk, The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami exposes the psychological and mythological underpinnings of this other world. Matthew Carl Strecher shows how these considerations color MurakamiOCOs depictions of the individual and collective soul, which constantly shift between the tangible and intangible but in this literary landscape are undeniably real. Through these otherworldly depths The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami also charts the writerOCOs vivid OC inner world, OCO whether unconscious or underworld (what some Japanese critics call achiragawa, or OC over thereOCO), and its connectivity to language. Strecher covers all of MurakamiOCOs workOCoincluding his efforts as a literary journalistOCoand concludes with the first full-length close reading of the writerOCOs newest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. "
Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
Title | Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Strecher |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Total Pages | 97 |
Release | 2002-01-11 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1441101462 |
This is an excellent guide to Haruki Murakami's extraordinary novel. It features a biography of the author (including an interview), a full-length analysis of the novel, and a great deal more. If you're studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you'll find this guide informative and helpful. This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from 'The Remains of the Day' to 'White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Title | Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World PDF eBook |
Author | Haruki Murakami |
Publisher | Vintage |
Total Pages | 418 |
Release | 2011-08-17 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 0307781097 |
In this hyperkinetic and relentlessly inventive novel, Japan’s most popular (and controversial) fiction writer hurtles into the consciousness of the West. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World draws readers into a narrative particle accelerator in which a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is simultaneously cooler than zero and unaffectedly affecting, a hilariously funny and deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Who We're Reading When We're Reading Murakami
Title | Who We're Reading When We're Reading Murakami PDF eBook |
Author | David Karashima |
Publisher | Catapult |
Total Pages | 192 |
Release | 2020-09-01 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1593765908 |
How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? A "fascinating" look at the "business of bringing a best-selling novelist to a global audience" (The Atlantic)―and a “rigorous” exploration of the role of translators and editors in the creation of literary culture (The Paris Review). Thirty years ago, when Haruki Murakami’s works were first being translated, they were part of a series of pocket-size English-learning guides released only in Japan. Today his books can be read in fifty languages and have won prizes and sold millions of copies globally. How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? This book tells one key part of the story. Its cast includes an expat trained in art history who never intended to become a translator; a Chinese American ex-academic who never planned to work as an editor; and other publishing professionals in New York, London, and Tokyo who together introduced a pop-inflected, unexpected Japanese voice to the wider literary world. David Karashima synthesizes research, correspondence, and interviews with dozens of individuals—including Murakami himself—to examine how countless behind-the-scenes choices over the course of many years worked to build an internationally celebrated author’s persona and oeuvre. His careful look inside the making of the “Murakami Industry" uncovers larger questions: What role do translators and editors play in framing their writers’ texts? What does it mean to translate and edit “for a market”? How does Japanese culture get packaged and exported for the West?
Dances with Sheep
Title | Dances with Sheep PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Carl Strecher |
Publisher | U of M Center For Japanese Studies |
Total Pages | 255 |
Release | 2021-01-19 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0472038338 |
As a spokesman for disaffected youth of the post-1960s, Murakami Haruki has become one of the most important voices in contemporary Japanese literature, and he has gained a following in the United States through translations of his works. In Dances with Sheep, Matthew Strecher examines Murakami’s fiction—and, to a lesser extent, his nonfiction—for its most prevalent structures and themes. Strecher also delves into the paradoxes in Murakami’s writings that confront critics and casual readers alike. Murakami writes of “serious” themes yet expresses them in a relatively uncomplicated style that appeals to high school students as well as scholars; and his fictional work appears to celebrate the pastiche of postmodern expression, yet he rejects the effects of the postmodern on contemporary culture as dangerous. Strecher’s methodology is both historical and cultural as he utilizes four distinct yet interwoven approaches to analyze Murakami’s major works: the writer’s “formulaic” structure with serious themes; his play with magical realism; the intense psychological underpinnings of his literary landscape; and his critique of language and its capacity to represent realities, past and present. Dances with Sheep links each of these approaches with Murakami’s critical focus on the fate of individual identity in contemporary Japan. The result is that the simplicity of the Murakami hero, marked by lethargy and nostalgia, emerges as emblematic of contemporary humankind, bereft of identity, direction, and meaning. Murakami’s fiction is reconstructed in Dances with Sheep as a warning against the dehumanizing effects of late-model capitalism, the homogenization of the marketplace, and the elimination of effective counterculture in Japan.
Novelist as a Vocation
Title | Novelist as a Vocation PDF eBook |
Author | Haruki Murakami |
Publisher | Vintage |
Total Pages | 191 |
Release | 2022-11-08 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0451494652 |
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller—and a unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. "Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers" —New York Times Book Review A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Esquire, Vulture, LitHub, New York Observer Aspiring writers and readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this engaging book from the internationally best-selling author. Haruki Murakami now shares with readers his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians. Here are the personal details of a life devoted to craft: the initial moment at a Yakult Swallows baseball game, when he suddenly knew he could write a novel; the importance of memory, what he calls a writer’s “mental chest of drawers”; the necessity of loneliness, patience, and his daily running routine; the seminal role a carrier pigeon played in his career and more. "What I want to say is that in a certain sense, while the novelist is creating a novel, he is simultaneously being created by the novel as well." —Haruki Murakami