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Literature's Postmodern Condition Literature’s Postmodern Condition: Representing the Postmodern in the Translated Novel Name: Deirdre Flynn Award: PhD Institution: Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick Supervisor: Dr Eugene O’Brien Submitted to the University of Limerick, date Literature’s Postmodern Condition: Representing the Postmodern in the Translated Novel ii Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work and has not been submitted, in whole or part, by me or another person, for the purpose of obtaining any other qualification. Signed: ___________________ Date: iii Dedication To Kafka Tamura for sending me into this metaphysical storm iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Eugene O’Brien, for all his help, guidance and support; my family for their patience; and Shane Keogh for everything. v Portions of this thesis have been disseminated at the following conferences and in the following publications: Conferences ‘The Postmodern Protagonist: Publicly Positioned and Privately Prejudiced’ Public/Private Conference, Mary Immaculate College, May 2011. ‘If Modern Life is Rubbish, What is Postmodern Life?’ The Contemporary: An International Conference of Literature and the Arts, June 24 – 26, 2011, Nayang University, Singapore. ‘When Work Doesn’t Work’ RePresentations of Working Life Conference, November 18-20, 2011, Erlangen University, Germany. ‘Adventures in the Postmodern Wonderland’ Future Adventures in Wonderland: The Aftermath of Alice Conference, December 1, 2011, HIC Dragonnes, Manchester. ‘Postmodern Literature: Murakami’s International Chronicle’ What Happens Now: 21st Century Writing in English, July 16-18, 2012, Lincoln University. ‘Positioning the Postmodern Female’ Otherness in philosophy, theory and art practice, November 23, 2012, The Centre vi for Otherness, Limerick. ‘A New Postmodern Female Emerges: Chronicling Murakami’s Perspective’ Emerging Perspectives, May 2 -3, 2013, UCD. ‘The Transcreation of Tokyo: The Universality of Murakami’s Urban Landscape’ Transcultural Imaginaries Making New, Making Strange, June 14 -17, 2013, Nayang University, Singapore. Forthcoming Publications ‘Adventures in the Postmodern Wonderland’ in The Aftermath of Alice by HIC Dragonnes, Manchester. ‘Positioning the Emerging Postmodern Female’ in Murakami in Emerging Perspectives 4.1 (2013). vii Abstract This thesis offers a close reading of some of the texts of Haruki Murakami through a postmodern lens, offering a new perspective on how the Japanese writer corroborates Lyotard’s notion of the ‘Postmodern Condition’ and in turn offers a new postmodern space that is neither exclusively Anglo-European or Asian, but encompasses both. Through exploration of both Eastern and Western postmodern thought, this thesis traces where Murakami, as a translated writer, can be conceptually situated, without subjecting him to a western orientalist prejudice. It aims to show that postmodernity cannot be pinpointed to either a specific spatial or temporal location, but is a paradigm that evolves in, and impacts on, all first world societies. Analysis of Murakami’s postmodern perspectives on identity, connection, and working life offers a more substantial understanding of a first world postmodern mood which is central to his writing. Representation of the postmodern female with Murakami’s work is also examined, and suggests how feminism and postmodernism interact and mutually inform each other’s perspectives. Finally a comprehensive comparison with Franz Kafka details how, despite their viii geographical and chronological differences, both writers reinforce elements of Lyotard’s notion of the coexistence of modernism and postmodernism. In conclusion, this thesis attempts to deepen understanding of Murakami and of postmodernism as an intellectual and cultural phenomenon ix Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. viii Contents .............................................................................................................................. x Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................... 15 Chasing the Postmodern Condition ................................................................................... 15 1.1 What is postmodernity? ............................................................................................ 15 1.2 How has postmodernity taken hold in Japan? .......................................................... 56 1.3 Chronicling a new postmodern experience .............................................................. 70 1.4 Murakami’s Postmodern Worlds ............................................................................... 77 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 86 The Condition of the Contemporary: .................................................................................. 86 Murakami’s Postmodern Identity Chronicle ........................................................................ 86 2.1 A Wild Sheep Chase ................................................................................................ 99 2.2 Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of the World ............................................... 119 2.3 The Wind-up Bird Chronicle ................................................................................... 138 2.4 Kafka on the Shore ................................................................................................. 151 2.5 1Q84 ...................................................................................................................... 163 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 176 Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................... 180 Postmodern Literature: When Work doesn’t work ............................................................ 180 3.1 A Wild Sheep Chase .............................................................................................. 191 3.2 Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of the World ............................................... 196 3.3 The Second Bakery Attack ..................................................................................... 204 3.4 The Wind-up Bird Chronicle ................................................................................... 207 3.5 1Q84 ...................................................................................................................... 218 Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................... 231 Positioning the Postmodern Female ................................................................................ 231 4.1 The girl with the ears .............................................................................................. 241 x 4.2 Librarians and granddaughters .............................................................................. 254 4.3 The female as medium ........................................................................................... 269 4.4 Oedipal Females .................................................................................................... 290 4.5 The central female .................................................................................................. 300 Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................... 308 Franz Kafka on Murakami’s Shore ................................................................................... 308 5.1 The lack of an ending ............................................................................................. 315 5.2 The anti-hero protagonists ..................................................................................... 325 5.3 Approaches to work ................................................................................................ 336 5.4 The postmodern female ......................................................................................... 346 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 362 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................... 367 xi Introduction A heart that’s full up like a landfill, a job that slowly kills you, bruises that won’t heal. You look so tired-unhappy, bring down the government, they don’t, they don’t speak for us. I’ll take a quiet life, a handshake of carbon monoxide, with no alarms and no surprises, no alarms and no surprises, no alarms and no surprises, Silence, silence. (Radiohead ‘No Surprises’) It seems fitting that the protagonists of Haruki Murakami’s postmodern worlds listen to Radiohead as they face up to the crises of their generation, searching for identity, purpose and connection in a world full of mirrors and misrepresentations. The character Kafka, from Kafka on the Shore, chose to bring Radiohead’s postmodern masterpiece ‘Kid A’ with him when he ran away from home, and he
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