The Comparative Study On Haruki Murakami And Banana Yoshimoto

Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto are the very popular two writers of thecontemporary literature from Japan. In addition to the ultra-high performance insales,more significant of this influence is that as the standard-bearer of Japaneseliterature, play a role in rushing out of Asia, towards the international literature in theprocess of globalization. Needless to say,Haruki Murakami is known as"King ofcontemporary literature"in Japan,his works have been translated into36languages,and introduced to more than40countries and regions. Especially for Chinese readers,Murakami has almost become a benchmark for contemporary Japanese literaryworld.However, as the daughter of commentator Takaaki Yoshimoto, though BananaYoshimoto is not as well-known as Murakami in China, with the unique exquisitebrushwork and the simplicity style of female writers,she is a school of her own in theJapanese literary world. Her works have been translated and published in more than30countries, especially in Europe, Germany, Italy, they had a huge impact. She iscalled"Queen of contemporary literature." by Japanese critics. We will find that,compared to Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, whether it is to grow up as thenext generation of postwar literary environment, or as efforts to integrate with theworld’s cutting-edge literary writers.In artistic style,the performance theme, languageexpression and post modernity literature embody, these two writers have certainsimilarities, but each have their own style and characteristics. The author tried to takethis as a starting point, using the theory and methods of comparative literature,analysis their representative"Norwegian Wood" and "Kitchen",for a comparativestudy between them.As the view of theme, although the two novels are about the love story, butessentially belong to the "growing up novel",but they have somedifferences--"Norwegian Wood" focuses on the living condition of the urban youth,growth and loneliness are the theme keywords;"Kitchen" pays more attention to theeffect of "healing fiction", to focus on the self-healing after the pain. Although the two works have private property,but they are different with thetraditional private novels.Compared with European and American and literature,Haruki Murakami has Less affected by Japanese traditional literature andculture.Banana Yoshimoto will focus on self-salvation of humanity in order to infectthe reader.Two writers both have a soft spot for death and written much. But death hasdifferent presentations in their works. Murakami focuses on the death of aestheticsthrough western perspective,but Banana pays more attention to emphasize thesignificance of the living meaning, urging people to see the rebirth after the death.Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto fusion of traditional and modern at thesame time, forming their own artistic style.That is the reason why they are popular inthe world.Their difference is that Murakami specializes in philosophical language,jazz and humor, Banana Yoshimoto favorite rustic expression.