ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the construction of Murakami Haruki as an author and a literary figure in Australian print reviews for his two recent novels 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Through a thematic analysis, it can be seen that these constructions are multifaceted, revealing issues regarding global perceptions of ‘Japanese’, Westernisation and the American influence, permissible popularity and fan culture (harukists), and the tensions between the Australian literary context and world literature paradigms. This chapter demonstrates how reviewers make bids to address a knowing audience, an unfamiliar public and Australian ‘literature’ discourses.