<論文>村上春樹/リチャード・ブローティガン/スティーブン・キング --「めくらやなぎと眠る女」論--

Abstract

The influence of American literature on Haruki Murakami has been widely commented on since his debut. In this paper, I re-examine the relationship between the writings of Haruki Murakami and those of Richard Brautigan and Stephen King, subsequently examining Kazuko Fujimoto's translation style. Focusing on “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, ” I clarify that two points of “despair” are expressed in this work. First is the sense of despair at being unable to save “her” and his cousin, even though they are aware of their darkness, created using Kazuko Fujimoto's translation style as well as Brautigan's worldview. Second is the sense of despair expressed by Murakami, who identified with King's brand of literature owing to the darkness he had witnessed in the 1960s; he expressed the same sense of mission in literary form through horror novels.