Haruki Murakami’s Characters and Works-as the Representation of Postmodernism.

Abstract

As one of the most outstanding Japanese authors, Haruki Murakami always comes up with excellent ideas of surrealistic stories. The Postmodern condition is evident in most of Murakami’s novels. A sense of alienation of character and world is evident by a language medium invented to form a kind of rhythmic syntax structure which complements the illustration of the main characters’ subconscious fears and paranoia in the course of his exploration of a seemingly chaotic world. His portrayal of characters is unique and significant that expresses the dichotomy of characters who fight between reality and fantasy. Nevertheless, their ambition to be free from the structures that bound them do not always come true. Some of them left their symbolic mechanism to enter another one. In the end, the characters cannot be the Other; as long as they are still in the clutches of a particular token device they would only be able to be the other. His Characters explore themselves in search of meaning of their existence. His characters often utter speeches which directly contradict their subsequent actions.They are male, middle-aged, leading aimless existences. They enjoy preparing and eating such western foods as spaghetti; they love American pop culture, particularly music of the 1960s and 1970s; and they are hedonistic and idle. They either engage in casual love affairs or fantasize about having them. His novels like After dark(2004) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994) is postmodern works by the coexistence of the surreal scenes.