Article Sidebar

Issue: Vol. 23 No. SI3 (2026)
Section: Articles
DOI: 10.54607/hcmue.js.23.SI3.6064(2026)
Date Published: 30/10/2026
Views 13
How to Cite
Nguyen, B. N. T., & Phan, T. T. N. (2026). THE FIGURE OF THE ARTIST IN JAPANESE LITERATURE AND ART: THE CASE OF KAZUO ISHIGURO’S AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD AND HARUKI MURAKAMI’S KILLING COMMENDATORE. Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Journal of Science, 23(SI3). https://doi.org/10.54607/hcmue.js.23.SI3.6064(2026)

THE FIGURE OF THE ARTIST IN JAPANESE LITERATURE AND ART: THE CASE OF KAZUO ISHIGURO’S AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD AND HARUKI MURAKAMI’S KILLING COMMENDATORE

Nguyen Bich Nha Truc1, Phan Thi Thuy Nhung2,
1 Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Vietnam
2 Khanh Hoa University, Vietnam

Main Article Content

Abstract

Kazuo Ishiguro and Haruki Murakami are prominent contemporary writers whose works frequently place their characters in relation to historical transformations, memory, and identity. This article examines the representation of the artist in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World (1986) and Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore (2017) from the perspectives of trauma and identity studies, focusing on the relationship among memory, trauma, artistic identity, and Japanese identity. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra, the study explores how historical trauma affects the formation and crisis of artistic identity, while also examining the role of memory and narrative in the subject’s process of confronting and renegotiating the past. The findings show that the artist figures in the two novels are constructed through the interaction of individual choices, artistic practices, and historical and social transformations. Through these representations, the two works raise questions about the possibility of reconstructing artistic identity as well as the artist’s responsibility toward the community and the historical consequences of creative choices.

Keywords

figure of the artist, Haruki Murakami, identity, Japanese literature, Kazuo Ishiguro, trauma.

Article Details

References

Arnold-de Simine, S. (2018). Trauma and memory. In J. R. Kurtz (Ed.), Trauma and literature (pp. 140–152). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316817155.011
Caruth, C. (1991). Unclaimed experience: Trauma and the possibility of history. Yale French Studies, 79, 181–192. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930251
Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Deng, F. M. (1995). War of visions: Conflict of identities in the Sudan. Brookings Institution Press.
Hall, S. (1989). Ethnicity: Identity and difference. Radical America, 23(4), 9–20.
Hall, S. (1996). The question of cultural identity. In S. Hall, D. Held, D. Hubert, & K. Thompson (Eds.), Modernity: An introduction to modern societies (pp. 595–634). Blackwell Publishers.
LaCapra, D. (2001). Writing history, writing trauma. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ishiguro, K. (2001). An artist of the floating world. London: Faber and Faber.
Kok, J. (2023). Japanese paintings of the Second World War. Defence Collective Singapore. https://www.defencecollectivesg.com/japanese-paintings-of-the-second-world-war/
Murakami, H. (2018). Killing Commendatore (Philip Gabriel, Ted Goossen translated) Publishing House: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.