After completing the Strecher reading I could not help but think back to that Mieko Kawakami's interview and her points on women in Murakami's novels. There were a lot of points made about identity and the self in our reading and my mind could not help but wander back to Kawakami's points about women in Murakami failing to stand alone. A portion that called my attention again was this:
"It's not possible for these women to exist on their own. And while female protagonists, or even supporting characters, may enjoy a moderate degree of self-expression, thanks to their relative independence, there's a persistent tendency for women to be sacrificed for the sake of the male leads."
I focused on this in my second reading of the interview because of points brought up by Strecher in regards to the way Murakami uses magical realism compared to other authors in the genre. It was stated that "magical realism in Murakami is used as a tool to seek a highly individualized, personal sense of identity in each person...". If this is to be taken as law in Murakami's writings it once again calls into question women's role in his works. Kawakami's main criticisms, along with many other women's, were associated with the fact that women never exist wholly as their own individuals in his works. If magical realism is supposed to work as a means to showcase and create an individual identity it would seem as though Murakami is only achieving this with his male characters. The female character's self is always dependent on or irremovable from her male counterpart. A very real albeit incredibly non-magical reflection of reality.
Jade Rona
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