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The Magical And The Mundane: Individualism, Corporate Identity, And Postmodern Pastiche In The Detective Novels Of Haruki Murakami, Diana Lynn Garland

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

In Murakami's detective novels, pop culture references, irony, and hard-boiled genre conventions combine with magic realist prose to articulate the search for individual identity in a Japanese milieu structured by traditional communal values. At the same time, Murakami's work remains grounded in Japanese literary tradition, and he sees himself very much as a product of modern Japan. The thesis traces the blending of these diverse tendencies in three of Murakami’s most popular novels: A Wild Sheep Chase, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Dance, Dance, Dance.

The Introduction provides an overview of the product, …