Masculinity and Gender Roles in Selected Stories by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami (1949) is a Japanese novelist who uses fiction to portray modern man's condition. Sexual identity, loneliness, and nostalgia are common themes in his works. Men without Women (2014) is a collection of short stories in which Murakami reverses gender roles to show men's desperate seek for companionship in their lives. According to Hans Robert Jauss (1921-1997), a German literary theorist, there is no identical interpretation of any literary text. Yet, a dialogic correspondence between the text and the reader allows the reader's voice to breathe different life into the text. Therefore this study aims to illustrate the identity crisis in a conservative society such as Japan. Murakami's raw style shows the impact of social pressure and isolation of Masculinity in postmodern societies.