'A High, Solid Wall': Haruki Murakami, National Identity, and Westernization

Haruki Murakami is no stranger to criticism in Japan, having been described as 'Westernized' by Japanese critics for much of his career. The heavy use of Western culture in his novels seems to suggest that Murakami writes without attention to his nationality, as his books are devoid of references to Japan's popular and artistic canons, and his writing style and the genres he works within owe much to Western origins. Despite these characteristics, I argue in this thesis that Murakami has been unfairly labeled by scholars and critics and seek to show how the author deals directly with Japanese issues of national identity, middle-class disillusionment, and historical memory through his novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami's importance as a Japanese author lies in his progressive outlook for Japan, in which he challenges loss of individuality under Japanese nationalism and pushes for a nation more in tune with the outside world.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Department dc:contributor.department

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Vaughan, Christopher Pearson

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Knapp, Shoshana Milgram

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Vollmer, James M.
• Wiscomb, Avery

• Westernization
• Japan
• National Identity
• Suburban
• WWII
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
• Burning

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:37570

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115352