Literature and reality: After the Quake by Murakami

Abstract

This paper studies how the plot topic of the Kobe earthquake is represented in the six short stories included in the book After the Quake, writen by Murakami after the impact on Japanese society and himself. We will analyze how the real event appears in these short stories belonging to Murakami’s narrative with stronger links with concrete reality, tales in which he presents critical portraits of an era, an event, a social movement. We will study the realistic components of Dantesque post-hecatomb pictures, and how it influences the characters’ behaviors. At the same time, the fantastic component must be recognized. Although it is antithetical to the previous one, it is notoriously significant in Murakami’s stories. The study will allow to observe that the cause of the earthquake is attributed –through the fantastic factor– to the action of an evil accumulated in the depths of the Earth; but the effects belong to reality.