Going underground with Murakami Haruki: Storytelling, oral history, and the “Japanese psyche” after the Tokyo subway sarin attack

By Mark Pendleton
English

Going Underground with Murakami Haruki: Storytelling, Oral History and “the Japanese Psyche” after the Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack

Murakami Haruki, one of the most famous writers to come out of Japan, is responsible for the production of the most popular text exploring the social effects of the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing. In this article, I discuss Murakami’s role as storyteller, historian and cultural commentator, while also questioning the international over-emphasis on the literary and cultural output of one writer at the expense of a multiplicity of Japanese voices.

Keywords

  • Tokyo subway sarin attack
  • Aum Shinrikyo
  • Haruki Murakami
  • storytelling
  • oral history
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info