doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2024.14.5.1218
Healing Trauma and Reconstruction of Japanese Identity in the Post-War Period in the Novels by Kazuo Ishiguro and Haruki Murakami
Truc Bich Nha Nguyen
1,*
,
Nhung Thi Thuy Phan
2
- 1 Faculty of Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- 2 Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Khanh Hoa, Nha Trang City, Vietnam
- Manuscript received January 10, 2024
- revised March 11, 2024
- accepted April 19, 2024
- published September 26, 2024
Abstract
Both Kazuo Ishiguro, a British Japanese writer, and Haruki Murakami show their views of Japanese history and try to explore the relationship between individuals and their country in the flow of history in their novels. “A Pale View of Hills” and “An Artist of the Floating World” by Ishiguro and “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” and “Killing Commendatore” by Murakami refer to the Pacific War and use the post-war period when trauma and identity became outstanding issues in Japanese society as the background of the stories. From the perspective of trauma and identity theories, this article clarifies the similarities and differences of Ishiguro and Murakami in the way of representing the trauma caused by identity crises that Japanese generations coped with and the changes of Japanese identity in the post-war period. Through analyses of Japanese citizens’ and immigrants’ trauma of finding and choosing identities in the four novels, this article also indicates Ishiguro and Murakami’s messages of healing trauma and reconstructing Japanese identity.
Keywords
- identity
- Haruki Murakami
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- post-war
- trauma
How to Cite
Truc Bich Nha Nguyen and Nhung Thi Thuy Phan, "Healing Trauma and Reconstruction of Japanese Identity in the Post-War Period in the Novels by Kazuo Ishiguro and Haruki Murakami," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 220-226, 2024. https://doi.org/ 10.18178/ijssh.2024.14.5.1218
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).