Women Without Men: Reflections on Haruki Murakami

A Symposium at the Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities

Panel I - 1:30-3:30pm:
Women Without Men: Four Scholars on Haruki Murakami 

A panel of scholars discuss recent approaches to Haruki Murakami's prolific body of novels, short stories, and travelogues. Gitte Hansen (Newcastle University) begins by addressing Murakami's use of female narrators, arguing that these texts allow for a more expansive reading of gender in Murakami's fiction than heretofore allowed. Picking up this thread, Tiffany Hong (Earlham College) explores how Murakami's peripheral female characters do more than simply serve as conduits or guides in the hero's quest for self-realization. Rebecca Suter (University of Oslo) moves on to examine seemingly "peripheral" travelogues to unearth the deeper structures of language in Murakami's texts. Finally, Anna Zielinska-Elliott's (Boston University) project addresses intertextuality in Murakami's writing. 

Panelists will give short papers followed by reflection and discussion with each other and the audience. This panel will be moderated by Eve Zimmerman.

Panel II - 4:00-5:00pm:
What We Talk About When We're Not Talking About Murakami: A Comp. Lit Roundtable Featuring Wellesley Faculty

From 4:00-5:00pm, join us for an informal roundtable discussion with Professors Rachid Aadnani, Cindy Ok, Sergio Parussa, Marilyn Sides, and Mingwei Song on the evolving state of world literature and translation.
 

This event is free and open to the public, and will be livestreamed via Zoom. Click here to pre-register for Zoom attendance.