Surrealist Ontologies and the Fragility of Identity in Murakami’s the Wind-up Bird Chronicle

Volume 11, Number 2

Surrealist Ontologies and the Fragility of Identity in Murakami’s the Wind-up Bird Chronicle

Authors

Midhat Tasneem , Vellore Institute of Technology, India

Abstract

Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994) holds a distinctive place in the realm of global literature, utilising surrealist elements to explore themes of identity, autonomy, and existential crisis. This research investigates the surrealism present in the novel, not merely as a stylistic embellishment but as a philosophical and ontological framework that facilitates the protagonist, Toru Okada, in experiencing a gradual destabilisation and tentative reconstruction of identity. Utilising André Breton’s foundational surrealist theory in conjunction with the scholarly insights of Matthew Strecher, Susan Napier, Masao Miyoshi, Livia Monnet, and others, this paper contends that the novel’s dreamscapes, liminal spaces, uncanny encounters, and surrealist doubling collectively represent a thorough investigation into the fragility of identity in the context of late modernity. Central surrealist motifs, such as the arid well, the mysterious facial mark, the Hotel Dolphin, Creta Kano’s multiple subjectivities, and the incursion of war memory, construct an ontological terrain where selfhood remains in a state of constant flux. The article situates Murakami’s surrealism within its Japanese cultural and historical contexts, illustrating its divergence from Western precursors and producing a transcultural surrealism that enhances the philosophical dimensions of the genre.

Keywords

Surrealism; Identity; Existentialism; Haruki Murakami; Japanese Fiction; Liminal Space; Uncanny