Murakami Haruki Historical Memory Research

Murakami Haruki, the famous Japanese contemporary writer, is prolific since Hear the Wind Sing published. All of his works present a strong sense of age and obvious trace of Japan modern history which is closely related to his personal experience. According to Murakami Haruki practicing his writer social function or not, his literary creation is divided into alienation and commitment phrases in the broad sense by the academics, with the publication of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as a turning point. Historical memory is the paper’s theme, close textual reading plus the dichotomy above are its powerful tools.Three historical events which have profound influence on Murakami Haruki are the foundation of exploring history and ego questioning of himself.This paper is divided into three chapters. The first one focuses on the youth trilogy,analyzing empty inside of the young Murakami Haruki generation who swallowed their strike failure pain. The secondary chapter lays an emphasis on The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which is a story about war. With the guide of real and historical clues of this novel, the hero faces himself honestly by tracing history.The tertiary chapter focalizes Osaka-Kobe earthquake and Tokyo subway sarin attack, that tends to summarize the reasons people giving up their ego voluntarily and the consequences they have to bear.