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TAKAGI, CHIAKI, Ph.D. From Postmodern to Post Bildungsroman from the Ashes: An Alternative Reading of Murakami Haruki and Postwar Japanese Culture. (2009) Directed by Dr. Mary Ellis Gibson. 271pp. My dissertation explores how postcolonial discourse offers an alternative theoretical framework for the literary works produced in contemporary Japan. I read the works of Murakami Haruki as cultural ethnographies of postwar Japan and apply postcolonial theories to his representations of the imperial nature of Japan’s State System and the oppressed individuality in a highly controlled society. Based on the idea that postwar Japan is controlled by Japan’s indigenous imperialism, I reconstruct modern Japan’s cultural formation in postcolonial discourse, applying theories of Michael Hechter, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Paul Gilroy. I recognize the source of Japan’s imperialism in its pre-modern feudalism, which produced the foundation of today’s Tokyo-centered core-periphery structure through internal colonialism. Indigenous imperialism also promoted the nation’s modernization, creating a Japanese version of the West through self-imposed westernization (self-colonialism) as well as seeking colonial expansion in Asia. In postwar Japan, imperialism is hidden under the mask of democracy and its promotion of a Bildungsroman-like self- representation of modern history, to which Murakami offers counter narratives. My examination of Murakami’s works challenges the geographical boundary made by current postcolonial studies, and it also offers a new perspective on Japan’s so- called postmodern writings. FROM POSTMODERN TO POST BILDUNGSROMAN FROM THE ASHES: AN ALERNATIVE READING OF MURAKAMI HARUKI AND POSTWAR JAPANESE CULTURE By Chiaki Takagi A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2009 Approved by _______________________________ Committee Chair © 2009 Chiaki Takagi APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair _____________________________________ Mary Ellis Gibson Committee Members ___________________________________ William D. Hart ____________________________________ Noelle Morrissette ____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee ____________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: THE POSTMODERN AND THE POSTCOLONIAL IN POSTWAR JAPAN.....................................................1 II. MURAKAMI’S MODERNITY: IS THE “POST-” IN POSTWAR THE ‘POST-” IN POSTMODERN? .........................................19 III. MURAKAMI’S TOKYO: LOST IN THE THIRD SPACE WONDERLAND .............................................................................64 IV. MURAKAMI’S HISTORY: UNSPEAKABLE THOUGHT SPOKEN ..................................................................................107 V. MURAKAMI’S COMMITMENT: CATS, CHINESE AND COMMUNICATION .........................................................................142 VI. MURAKAMI’S SALVATION: RAINING FISH AND LEECHES ..........................................................................................182 VII. CONCLUSION: THE JAPANIZATION OF POSTCOLONIALITY ..........245 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................255 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE POSTMODEN AND THE POST COLONIAL IN POSTWAR JAPAN In his latest novel, 1Q84 that was published in May 2009, Japan’s leading novelist, Murakami Haruki has his protagonist say, “To deprive history from one is to deprive a part of his/her character. It is a crime. Our memories are made up of personal memories and collective memories. History is the latter. If one is deprived of history or history is rewritten, he/she can no longer maintain a proper character” (My translation). 1 I believe that these words represent Murakami’s position as a writer of the postwar generation who has been voicing his dissatisfaction with the State-system’s manipulation of the nation’s imperial history. Although Japan’s high economic growth and cultural dominance in the rest of Asia (as well as its influence on non-Asian countries) easily direct our attention not to the past but to the continuation of the present, we must realize that the present does not exist without its linkage to the past. Otherwise, the present is simply a make-believe story. In postwar Japan, the State-system has been keeping people from their modern history, and suppressing their subjectivity. Instead, the State-system provides them with ready-made identities of hardworking middle-class and westernized high standards of living. The State-system’s control makes Japan’s modernity unreal and grotesque as a blooming flower with no stem to link it to its roots. I believe that Murakami is one of the 1 intellectuals who attempt to connect the lost “stem” or Japan’s real routes of modernity to present society. Through his works, Murakami suggests that this process is necessary in order for a postwar individual to attain the strength to survive in a highly controlled society. Colonization does not take one form. It occurs not only at the political level but also at cultural, psychological, physical and individual levels, which do not discriminate based on the place of occurrence. One can be colonized by anybody (and anything) if being colonized is giving up one’s right to make a choice. Grounding my argument on the idea that Japan’s modernization was promoted by its indigenous imperialism, which created the Japanese version of the West, I propose that postwar Japanese society is reconstructable in postcolonial discourse. This idea offers an alternative theoretical framework for what has been regarded as Japan’s postmodernity. If we see the high degree of control of today’s Japanese society as a continuation of imperial rule, its postmodernity seen in postwar cultural formation also becomes a version of (post)coloniality. In my dissertation, I challenge the historical and geographical particularity of postcolonialism by applying postcolonial theories to the texts produced in contemporary Japan and by redefining Japan’s modernization from a new theoretical location. I see the postcolonial as a localized version of the postmodern and use postcolonial theories to localize Japan’s postmodernity. In other words, postmodernity of the western sense does not fit Japan’s cultural formation simply because Japan’s modern trajectory is not the same as that of the west. For this reason, I argue that localization of postmodernity in 2 non-Western society is necessary, and I consider my attempt as Japanization of the postmodern as well as the postcolonial. In short, I see Japan’s postmodernity as a version of the modern that can be theorized in the context of the postcolonial. For my project of Japanizing the “modern” and “colonial,” I chose works of Murakami. I believe that his works represent Japan’s modernity as a peculiar version of colonization, which needs a more localized theoretical framework than that of the postmodern. Murakami is one of the most internationally recognized literary figures in Japan. His works are translated into over forty languages. Between 1979 and 2005, he published seven long novels, five novels of medium length and ten collections of short stories. Besides these novels, he also published a number of essay collections, criticisms, picture books and translations of American novels. Ever since his debut, he has been writing at a healthy pace without any major interruption. The Japanese media praises him as an amazingly rare writer, who produces big sellers without failure. The biggest seller was his tenth book, Norwegian Wood (1987), which sold over four million copies in Japan. His popularity was called the “Murakami Phenomenon” by the Japanese media, and his influence on writers in other Asian countries produced a group of new writers called “Murakami Children,” who imitate his style. Naturally, literary critiques wonder what distinguishes Murakami from other authors, especially from those who preceded Murakami such as Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo, to name a few. This question actually leads to a more theoretical argument: How should we frame his works? Murakami himself states that when he started writing, he did not have any preexisting style of writing he wanted to model his own after. 2 Since his debut in 3 the1970s, his style has been considered by Japanese critics as “new” and “non- traditional,” and his works are often discussed in the western theoretical framework of postmodernism, which was introduced to the literary criticism around the same time. Murakami is a master story teller of our time, who has the flexibility to change his writing to find the best way to represent Japanese individuals. When he changes his writing, it is his readers’ responsibility to change their reading of him accordingly. I recognize myself as a huge admirer of Murakami. I have been reading his works ever since I was introduced to Hear the Wind Sing during my first year of college. I was first fascinated by his unconventional style and deeply attracted to the protagonist, who was indifferent to becoming a model citizen of Japan. I had never read a book like that before, and I wondered if Murakami was ahead of our time, or if he had slipped out

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