The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami Alexandra Cequeria, Hunter Purcell, Cynthia Burton

About the Author Born January 12, 1949 in Kyoto, Japan Grew up in Kobe, Japan Studied drama at Waseda, Tokyo in 1973 Owned a jazz bar with his wife Traveled through Europe in the late 1980’s (Greece and Italy) Lived in the United States for several years Taught at Princeton University, Tufts University, and Harvard University Returned to Japan in 1995 Translates books

Culture After WW2, Japan was poor and occupied by Allied Forces until 1952 Everyone was optimistic that things would get better, but they didn’t Television came about in the 1960’s, which showed mostly American TV shows Japan was still being westernized after WW2 Counterculture/ Uprisings in 1978-1980 Murakami was influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Chandler, Richard Brautigan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stephen King, Jack Kerouac The earthquake and sarin gas attack in Japan in 1995 led to Murakami’s return and to two of his nonfiction books

Writings Hear the Wind Sing (1979) Pinball, 1973 (1980) A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985) Norwegian Wood (1987) Dance Dance Dance (1988) South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994) Sputnik Sweetheart (1999) Kafka on the Shore (2002) After Dark (2004) 1Q94 (2009) Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013)

Central Themes, Ideas & Symbols Cats Music (Specifically classical & Jazz) Wells/ Holes Utopia/Dystopia Magical Realism Postmodernism Allusions to Western Culture Lack of Names, Common Names (Identity) First Person Narrative

About the Book In the beginning of the novel, the protagonist Toru Okada, receives a call from a mysterious woman. This woman possesses the power of clairvoyance. She warns Toru that the disappearance of his cat, named after his brother-in-law Noboru Wataya, is the beginning of a series of life-changing events. Afterwards, Toru’s wife Kumiko goes missing and is under the control of her brother, who has attained a form of mind control. In order to bring her back, Toru must break the control that his brother-in-law has on his wife. The dream-like narrative of the novel is connected to Toru’s practice of lucid dreaming. Throughout the novel, The narrative also shifts from the present to the war of Japan against Korea in the early twentieth century.

Works Cited Caesar, Judith. "Murakami, The Inklings, And The Uses Of Fantasy." Critique 52.1 (2011): 41. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. Fisher, Susan. "An Allegory Of Return: Murakami Haruki's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Comparative Literature Studies 37.2 (2000): 155-170. Web. 2 Apt. 2016. Gregory, Sinda, Toshifumi Miyawaki, and Larry McCaffery. "It Don't Mean A Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing: An Interview With Haruki Murakami." Review Of Contemporary Fiction 22.2 (2002): 111. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. "Haruki Murakami". Haruki Murakami. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. Murakami, Fuminobu. "Murakami Haruki’S Postmodern World." Japan Forum 14.1 (2002): 127-141. Humanities International Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. Strecher, Matthew C. "Magical Realism And The Search For Identity In The Fiction Of Murakami Haruki". Journal of Japanese Studies 25.2 (1999): 263. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.