Published Online:September 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES040924
Author Name:Sayani Konar and Punyashree Panda
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:43-57
The paper, through a critical analysis of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2014) by Haruki Murakami, addresses the impact of spaces on human perception and consequently, human relations through a phenomenological lens. Henri Lefebvre’s idea of the spatial triad informs an understanding of urban space. Besides, the dream space conjured up by Murakami is also probed in detail. The surreal elements in the novel are scrutinized to unravel the suppressed human desire, subconscious guilt, and enduring trauma. Lacanian psychoanalysis, particularly the idea of the three registers and the concept of jouissance, is employed to understand the protagonist Tsukuru Tazaki’s mental state. The paper also investigates how the novel reinforces the suburban-urban dichotomy of innocence and experience, of good and bad and represents them through symbols and imagery. Further, it is evident that the narrative strategies employed in Murakami’s novel disrupt the idea of time as a linear entity and even transform time into a spatial construct. Lastly, the paper studies how Murakami’s novel blurs the line between dream and reality to the extent that dreams become more real than the physical world.
Haruki Murakami’s work Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2014) is a venture into the dark abyss of human psyche, mired in unfulfilled desires, burning jealousies, censored dreams, and an over encompassing sense of void or lack.