Haruki Murakami

<p><em>Haruki Murakami: Storytelling and Productive Distance</em> studies the evolution of the <i>monogatari </i>or narrative and storytelling in the works of Haruki Murakami. Author Chikako Nihei argues that Murakami’s power of <i>monogatari </i>lies in his use of distancing effects; storytelling allows individuals to cross into a different context through which they can effectively observe themselves and reality. His belief in the importance of <i>monogatari </i>is closely linked to his generation’s experience of the counter-­--culture movement in the late1960s and his research on the 1995 Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack caused by the <i>Aum shinrikyo </i>cult major events in postwar Japan that revealed many people’s desire for a stable narrative to interact with and form their identity from.</p>