The Haruki Phenomenon by Tomoki Wakatsuki

Author:Tomoki Wakatsuki
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811575495
Publisher: Springer Singapore

Here, Ōe expresses his wish to depart from ambiguity and chooses to be “decent,” which he aligns with other meanings, such as “humane,” “sane,” and “comely” from George Orwell’s characters (Ōe 1994). Considering that the early 1990s were a time when Nihonjinron texts written by non-Japanese were popular bestsellers in Japan, it is highly possible that Ōe was critical of the discourse, which is suggested in the above excerpt from his speech. He denounces what is promoted in the Nihonjinron narrative, and calls for a sound approach to reconsider Japanese identity.

On the other hand, Murakami, as a contemporary Japanese writer, remains impartial regarding both the struggle with the West and the Japaneseness discourse. As Strecher observes, Murakami’s work, including his unique writing style, was a result of the author’s attraction to the American way of life, which he came to know as a young teenager through reading contemporary American novels. Unlike the earlier generation, which suffered from the war in various ways during its adolescence, Murakami enjoyed being acquainted with American culture in his hometown of Kobe, a major port city in the western region of Japan known for its multicultural atmosphere. However, it was not just American culture that attracted him, but what America represented—individual freedom—which he came to apprehend through his interaction with literary works and music from a faraway continent. While postwar Japanese writers sought freedom from the totalitarian militarism that oppressed them, Murakami’s generation struggled against the institutional power, symbolized by the student movements in the 1960s. As a college student, Murakami was deeply disappointed by the outcome of these movements, and chose to be “detached,” seeking autonomy as an individual (cf. Murakami Haruki, Kawai Hayao ni ai ni iku 1996, pp. 9–12). This decision to leave the boundaries of his community has ultimately changed his course, for he was abandoning what was deemed the “proper” course for university graduates, and instead chose the path of the “loner.”

This tendency to rebel against the “proper” path is equally reflected in the language Murakami used as he began his writing career. With just a few short paragraphs written in English and translated by the author back into his native Japanese with Hear the Wind Sing, Murakami effectively obliterated the mystique of a transcendent Japanese language that defied comprehension by any but the Japanese themselves. In this regard, Rubin (2012) would seem to agree.

On Murakami’s relationship to Japan and the Japanese language, Rubin argues that:

It is important to note how shocking Murakami’s cultural relativism is in the context of Japanese literature. Readers unfamiliar with the quasi-religious rhapsodizing about the spiritual superiority or unique magic of Japanese that has passed for serious intellectual commentary in Japan (…) may not realize that Murakami’s cosmopolitanism is almost revolutionary. (2012, p. 233)

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