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Definition: Murakami, Haruki from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

Japanese novelist and translator. He is one of Japan's best-selling writers, influenced by Western writers, music, and popular culture. His dreamy, gently surrealist novels include Norwegian Wood (1987), Sputnik Sweetheart (2000), and 1Q84 (2009).

Murakami's first three novels, known collectively as the Rat trilogy, were Hear the Wind Sing (1979), Pinball, 1973 (1980), and A Wild Sheep Chase (1982). He is often described as Kafkaesque; later works that show this influence include The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1995) and Kafka on the Shore (2002).

He was born in Kyoto and owned a coffeehouse and jazz bar before turning to writing full-time.


Murakami, Haruki

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(härō'kē mʊr´´äkä'mē), 1949–, Japanese novelist. He lived in Europe and the United States from 1986 to 1995. Widely considered one of Japan's most important contemporary novelists, he is heavily influenced by American culture, and his early work was criticized as overly Westernized by some in Japan. His cool, contemporary fiction is characterized by both realism and surreal fantasy, combining the minutiae of everyday life with strange, inexplicable events and elements of science fiction. Murakami's central theme has been characterized as the elusiveness of human identity, and his style encompasses great moral seriousness as well as whimsy and slapstick comedy. His often solitary, withdrawn, and world-weary protagonists are generally stripped of Japanese tradition; his works are sprinkled with references to American popular culture. Murakami's first novel was Hear the Wind Sing (1979, tr. 1987). Since then he has published A Wild Sheep Chase (1982, tr. 1989), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and…
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Full text Article Murakami, Haruki

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
1949- ♦ Japanese novelist He was born in Kobe and educated in classics at Waseda University, Tokyo. He started his career by translating the works of modern US writers ( Raymond Chandler and Truman Capote ) into Japanese, and his own highly original novels are remarkable for being more influenced by…
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Japanese novelist and translator. His best-selling books of Kafkaesque fiction and non-fiction include A Wild Sheep Chase (1982), Norwegian Wood (1987), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009-10). Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely…
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Japanese novelist and short-story writer Haruki Murakami is known for his eccentric and whimsical writing style. American popular culture, film, and the pulp detective novel genre all have been influences on Murakami's work. His novels and stories often feature bizarre plots and subplots. Murakami…
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Full text Article Top 101 Authors

From People You Should Know
Top 101 Authors: Introduction LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (b. 1832—d. 1888) MAYA ANGELOU (b. 1928—d. 2014) ISAAC ASIMOV (b. 1920—d. 1992) W.H. AUDEN (b. 1907–d. 1973) JANE AUSTEN (b. 1775—d. 1817) JAMES BALDWIN (b. 1924—d. 1987) …
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Full text Article Murakami, Haruki

From Gale Biographies: Popular People
Writer, 1979-; owner/operator, Peter Cat jazz club, Tokyo, 1974-82; published first book, Kaze no uta o kike (Hear the Wind Sing), 1979; visiting scholar, Princeton University, 1991-93; writer-in-residence, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 1993-95. New Writer's Award, Gunzo journal, for Kaze no uta o…
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Full text Article Murakami, Haruki

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(härō'kē mʊr´´äkä'mē), 1949–, Japanese novelist. He lived in Europe and the United States from 1986 to 1995. Widely considered one of Japan's most important contemporary novelists, he is heavily influenced by American culture, and his early work was criticized as overly Westernized by some in Japan. …
| 329 words
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Full text Article Japanese literature

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Prose, poetry, and drama of Japan. Characteristic of the classical literature is the intermingling of prose and poetry, the forms of the latter being determined by the number of syllables. The Tale of Genji ( c. 1005) by Murasaki Shikibu has been called the world's first novel. Modern novelists…
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Many cross-cultural collaborations involve generating new work or creating theatre out of contemporary literature. I have called this section “The Pendulum” to evoke Rustom Bharucha's idea from his book Theatre and the World that the cultural exchange inherent in working across cultures involves…
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Full text Article WORLD LITERATURE AND EAST ASIAN LITERATURE

From Routledge Literature Companions: The Routledge Companion to World Literature Full text Article THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIMENSION
A useful start to understanding “world literature” in East Asia is to think in terms of cross-cultural interactions within the region. A historical perspective demands that we start with China. The long and powerful Chinese cultural hegemony, especially through the Confucian schools of thought, left…
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Full text Article Quotations by Author

From Chambers Dictionary of Great Quotations
Abbott, Diane Julie 1953- Abelard, Peter 1079-1142 Abercrombie, Lascelles 1881-1938 Abrams, M(eyer) H(oward) 1912- Abse, Dannie 1923-2014 Abu’l-’Alá, Al-Ma’arri 973-1058 Abzug, Bella originally Bella Savitzky 1920-98…
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