Intersignality in Haruki Murakami’s short stories

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2021-0019

Abstract

Applying the theory of intersignality to study the Murakami's short stories, I found that although he was a master of storytelling, his short stories were mostly based on the stories of a certain author. We do not see it as a plagiarism phenomenon because Murakami has a sense of dialogue or writing differently than previous writers. But that shows a limitation in Murakami's artistic creation. In addition, he aimed to make money in writing so he wrote long and so much. Reading Murakami's stories has a certain boredom. During his writing career, Murakami was influenced by Kafka, Hemingway and especially Raymond Carver. He has little influence from Japanese writers. And even though Japanese writers criticize his writing as a detachment from his tradition, Murakami is still a Japanese writer. The only difference is that he wants to target a global audience.