Postmodern Surrealism in the Second Bakery Attack Since its establishment, surrealist media has been able to capture our attention with its abstract thought provoking nature. It began with literature and spread to all other forms of expression across the globe. Although it had gained such renown, it wasn’t until The Second Bakery Attack was released in a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami that surrealist literature arrived in Japan. The Second Bakery Attack stood out above all other literary releases of its time, receiving universally positive reviews and revolutionizing the way Japan viewed literature. The story is set in modern times, revolving around a newlywed couple who awake one night with a strange and powerful hunger. The narrator is the husband, speaking in the first person, he dictates his thoughts on the events as they unfold. The couple soon set out on a mission to rob a bakery in order to break their “curse” of hunger. Throughout the story, strange situations arise, which the husband convinces himself are normal aspects of married life. In order to clarify the husband’s feeling towards his wife, Murakami uses a vivid, metaphoric image of a volcano beneath the sea. By using a unique and original postmodern surrealist style and descriptive imagery in the short story The Second Bakery Attack, Haruki Murakami was able to give birth to a new era of surrealist literature in Japan. This originality served to break away from the realism of the traditional Japanese I-novel and appeal to the Japanese people of the time who desired literature with more of a western approach. By only giving the main characters of the story an understanding of their strange behavior, Murakami broke away from the conventions of stan... ... middle of paper ... ...ablished norm of the time and created a masterpiece. The Second Bakery Attack will always be remembered as one of the first Japanese postmodern surrealist piece of literature. If it were not for Murakami it is possible that Japan would not have escaped from the cliché that is the I-novel. Works Cited "Surrealism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 Nov. 2009 . "Murakami Haruki." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 Nov. 2009 . Suzuki, Tomi. Narrating the Self: Fictions of Japanese Modernity. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1996. Murakami, Haruki. "Haruki Murakami: The Second Bakery Attack". 11/02/09
The novel is nurtured with a very soft but sophisticated diction. The essay itself portrays the author’s style of sarcasm and explains his points in a very clear manner. In addition, the author has used vocabulary that is very easy to understand and manages to relate the readers with his simplistic words. The author is able to convey a strong and provoc...
Fallows, James. "After Centuries of Japanese Isoation, a Fateful Meeting of East and West." {Smithsonian} July 1994: 20-33.
Like Water for Chocolate—a novel rich in history, culture, food, and scandal; a breathtaking portrayal of a love affair, of the strength of character of desperate women, and of humbling traditions—captivates both the soul and mind, enchanting its readers by way of causing them to become immersed in its story-line. Prominent among its themes is that of finding an identity—or a lack thereof—which seems to pervade the lives of those most engaged in the process of self evaluation and discovery, and as such Laura Esquivel’s novel is comparable to Haruki Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes, in which the characters from several stories seem to be in a state of perpetual dislocation and disconnection from the world around them. Tita in Esquivel’s novel, best portrays this struggle of gaining personal identity and freedom amidst repressive, external forces, while specific characters from stories in Murakami’s collection such as “Sleep”, “The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women”, or “A Slow Boat to China”, reflect a struggle that arises instead from both external and internal forces. Particularly important however, is Esquivel and Murakami’s contrasting approach to addressing the theme—be it through symbolism, language or characterization—that requires close critique.
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
Royall, Tyler. ""I Am I": Genji and Murasaki." Monumenta Nipponica 54.4 (1999): 437, 475-476. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
Reischauer, Edwin O., and Albert M. Craig. Japan, Tradition & Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Print.
Searing the mind with stunning images while seducing with radiant prose, this brilliant first novel is a story of damaged lives and the indestructibility of the human spirit. It speaks about loss, about the urgency, pain and ultimate healing power of memory, andabout the redemptive power of love. Its characters come to understand the
Why does it seem like humans always hurt the ones they love the most? This is a question faced as the Seventh man tells his story. In “The Seventh Man”, a young ten year old boy loses his best friend from a giant wave and carries the guilt until he learns how to reconcile from the tragedy. The story provokes curiosity to see if anyone can truly rebound from a life altering tragedy. In “The Seventh Man”, Murakami uses foreshadowing, strong word choice, and symbolism to develop the theme of tragedy and the quest for recovery.
The Postmodernist movement begun after World War II in which, high and low culture are questionable in the view of society and Art. The postmodernist movement in literature creates a new set of ideals for fiction, such as the metafiction, the fable like representation in novels, the pastiche, irony, and satire. Fredric Jameson speaks about the movement and its theory in his essay “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”. He questions postmodernism in society as it creates the new societal norm of popular culture. On the other hand, Jean Baudrillard analyzes the simulacra of postmodernism in “The Precession of Simulacra”. Baudrillard speaks of the “truth” and “reality” also as a questionable representation for the reader. Yet, both critics agree that postmodernist literature is depthless. Spiegelman’s Maus series is a metafiction, which tells the story of Art Spiegelman’s journey of writing this novel through the present-day retelling of Vladek Spiegelman’s life during the Holocaust. However, as a postmodernist text, Jameson and Baudrillard calls it depthless and an “unreal” representation. Nevertheless, the representation of Maus presents the characteristics of a postmodernist text, but argues that it is not depthless because of the representation of an authoritative view, a historical continuum, and the text does not depict itself as a mode of pop culture.
Keene, Donald. Anthology of Japanese literature, from the earliest era to the mid-nineteenth century. New York: Grove P, 1955.
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...
In conclusion, the use of elements of post modernism add a richness to literature and to the reading experience of the reader. Elements such as irony, magic realism and fragmentation cause people to think and make connections between the literature they are reading and how it relates to their own lives and the lives of the authors and other readers. The short stories studied in Ms. Reynolds 4U English class all contained many effective post modern elements that made students go more in depth with their reading and understanding of noted English literature. Perhaps some people were enlightened and adopted a postmodern view on the world.
This research paper offers a study of the popular Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s novel After Dark (2004) and retraces the inherent human instincts through the exploration of the psyche. A psychological explanation is given to the violence of human beings by associating it with the psychological devices, mirror, and mask. These devices reflect the inner psyche, the primitive animal self of an individual. Jung’s tripartite division of human psyche- anima/animus, shadow, and persona is also discussed in the paper by drawing parallels with the novel. The stressed and pressured psyche is the reason for the outburst of human violence, and this is proved through the paper. The darkness assists the man and therefore the inner consciousness takes
The Kojiki and Nihongi are the two original Japanese written records that illuminate the first documented Japanese attitude towards women (Lu 3-4). These documents facilitated the discovery of a feminine presence that is renowned and worshipped. The Nihongi holds i...
In this essay I am going to consider Spivak’s theory and perspectives of the subaltern in terms of Kazuo Ishiguro’s two novels A Pale View of Hills and Never Let Me Go. I will be considering Spivak’s theories of “post-colonialism”, “essentialism” as well as revising her essay on “Can the Subaltern Speak?” I will be focusing on defining the subaltern characters and their role in Ishiguro’s novel and how they deal with their status as subaltern or whether they are even aware of this constraint that they are faced with. As well as considering the narrative power that Ishiguro has given them in his novels simply by giving them a “voice”. A further aspect to be considered in this essay is the role of memory and trauma in the creation of the subalterns