ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3, based on Murakami’s early works, I examine how his protagonists’ wilful distancing from others is related to the author’s long-term struggle to write and his thorough reflection on the function of writing as engagement. His characters commonly isolate themselves. While Japanese critics often link his isolated characters with the author’s detached, apolitical attitude as a source for criticism, the readers positively associate their self-imposed isolation with their mental strength and will to be independent. A close analysis of Murakami’s early works reveals that he describes the characters who attempt to deal with their undigested past at the student movements through the power of narrative, not through mere resistance or refusal. This can be further understood through his representation of a narrating act as an engaging act in short story “The Last Lawn of the Afternoon.”
From this chapter to Chapter 5, I compare the way Murakami’s characters face others with the way the author himself confronts the cultural Other. At the early stage of his career, Murakami expressed little interest in contacting America, whose cultural elements appear throughout his novels. Instead, he explained he focuses on the distance he has from the foreign country, through which he can perceive Japan differently.
