DOI: 10.5176/2251-2853_2.1.82
Authors: Patricia Welch
Abstract:
In much of Murakami Haruki’s fiction, landscapes become dreamscapes, sites of contestation, and arenas where characters challenge individual, regional, and national identity on multiple levels. In Kafka no umibe (Kafka on the Shore, 2002, 2005) the novel’s dual protagonists (both of whom have experienced life-changing trauma) move through psychic dreamscapes physically mapped onto the topography of Japan as they independently pursue quests of enlightenment. By retracing the steps of things forgotten—or never consciously known— Kafka and Tamura activate the possibility of creating a new engagement with their respective foundational traumas and the consequences.
Keywords: Terms—-trauma, dreamscape, identity, Murakami, Kafka
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