The hero-Zen practitioner protagonist in Haruki Murakami’s novels: An analysis from Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey monomyth

Abstract

The authors approach the protagonist in Haruki Murakami’s novels from the archetype methodology, and from the perspective of J. Campbell’s monomyth of the hero’s journey. According to J. Campbell’s theory, the archetypal hero embarks on challenging journeys to accomplish the twin goals of exploring the world and self-perfection. The journey of the heroic characters in H. Murakami’s novels is from isolation, away from the problems of social life. Then, because of an unexpected mission, returning and entering the underground world to execute hard tasks, solving the problems of individual destiny, hence getting closer to the core of one’s own existence (the self), very close to the the archetypal hero’s journey that the American comparative mythologist J. Campbell outlined and explained. Haruki Murakami’s hero - meditator has reached the core of Japanese art and culture, which is Zen. The type of character like a Zen master creates an artistic and ideological bond between Murakami’s literature and the Japanese artistic tradition. Moreover, this research also clarifies the connection between Murakami’s works and myths in famous Japanese historical records such as Kojiki and Nihonshoki.