AN ANALYSIS OF Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore
Designer; author; information architect
In this series of four scrolls, ranging in length from 41 to 89 inches, I analyzed the structure of both the themes and complicated temporal universe of Haruki Murakami’s novel, Kafka on the Shore. I created four different “readings” or ways of accessing the text. In example one, the novel is shown as an Oedipal story. In example two, it is presented as a monomyth. In example three, the story’s relationships to the traditional Japanese ghost story, or Kaidan, the Shinto religion and Japanese folklore are shown. In example four, I analyzed and depicted the convoluted temporal jumps and shifts that occur in the novel.