Fluid Archetypes and Fractured Realities: A Jungian Reading of Murakami’s Quantum Narratives
Author(s): 1. Sruthi E, 2. Priya M
Authors Affiliations:
1.PhD Scholar, Department of English, PSG College of Arts and Science, Avinashi Road, Civil Aerodrome Post, Coimbatore- 641014, Tamil Nadu, India
2. Associate Professor, Department of English, PSG College of Arts & Science, Avinashi Road, Civil Aerodrome Post, Coimbatore-641014, Tamil Nadu, India.
DOIs:10.2017/IJRCS/202511003 | Paper ID: IJRCS202511003Abstract: Haruki Murakami’s fiction inhabits a liminal space between dream and reality, myth and modernity, where timeless archetypes are reborn within the contemporary psyche. This paper investigates how Murakami reimagines classical mythic structures through a postmodern and almost quantum framework, creating a narrative universe in which identity, fate, and metaphysical ambiguity coexist. Drawing upon archetypal literary theory (Jung, Frye, Campbell) and myth criticism, the study analyses how Murakami’s novel particularly Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage transform archetypes such as the Hero, the Shadow, the Anima, and the Wise Old Man into fluid, indeterminate figures. Through a synthesis of mythological symbolism, archetypal psychology, and quantum metaphors, this paper argues that Murakami’s narrative cosmos collapses the boundaries between inner and outer realities, presenting myth not as a remnant of the past but as an evolving mode of consciousness. Ultimately, Murakami’s oeuvre emerges as a metaphysical laboratory where myth, psyche, and physics converge to articulate a new narrative cosmology for the twenty-first-century imagination.
Abstract: Haruki Murakami’s fiction inhabits a liminal space between dream and reality, myth and modernity, where timeless archetypes are reborn within the contemporary psyche. This paper investigates how Murakami reimagines classical mythic structures through a postmodern and almost quantum framework, creating a narrative universe in which identity, fate, and metaphysical ambiguity coexist. Drawing upon archetypal literary theory (Jung, Frye, Campbell) and myth criticism, the study analyses how Murakami’s novel particularly Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage transform archetypes such as the Hero, the Shadow, the Anima, and the Wise Old Man into fluid, indeterminate figures. Through a synthesis of mythological symbolism, archetypal psychology, and quantum metaphors, this paper argues that Murakami’s narrative cosmos collapses the boundaries between inner and outer realities, presenting myth not as a remnant of the past but as an evolving mode of consciousness. Ultimately, Murakami’s oeuvre emerges as a metaphysical laboratory
Abstract: Haruki Murakami’s fiction inhabits a liminal space between dream and reality, myth and modernity, where timeless archetypes are reborn within the contemporary psyche. This paper investigates how Murakami reimagines classical mythic structures through a postmodern and almost quantum framework, creating a narrative universe in which identity, fate, and metaphysical ambiguity coexist. Drawing upon archetypal literary theory (Jung, Frye, Campbell) and myth criticism, the study analyses how Murakami’s novel particularly Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage transform archetypes such as the Hero, the Shadow, the Anima, and the Wise Old Man into fluid, indeterminate figures. Through a synthesis of mythological symbolism, archetypal psychology, and quantum metaphors, this paper argues that Murakami’s narrative cosmos collapses the boundaries between inner and outer realities, presenting myth not as a remnant of the past but as an evolving mode of consciousness. Ultimately, Murakami’s oeuvre emerges as a metaphysical laboratory where myth, psyche, and physics converge to articulate a new narrative cosmology for the twenty-first-century imagination.
where myth, psyche, and physics converge to articulate a new narrative cosmology for the twenty-first-century imagination.
Sruthi E., Priya M. (2025); Fluid Archetypes and Fractured Realities: A Jungian Reading of Murakami’s Quantum Narratives. International Journal of Research Culture Society, ISSN(O): 2456-6683, Volume – 9, Issue – 11, Pp.12-15. Available on – https://ijrcs.org/
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