『여자 없는 남자들(女のいない男たち)』속의 ‘과거’ 인식-「예스터데이」와 「셰에라자드」를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This study, focusing on ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Scheherazade’ in “Men without women”, analyzed the state of the people living avoiding the past, and the people caught in the past, who can not be established at present. Tanimura evade his past since he came to Tokyo. Habara is currently living an isolated life in a space called ‘house’ to get out of a certain incident that occurred in the past. They are showing a posture to intentionally avoid their past. Meanwhile, the Kitaru was regarded as unusual existence from other people when he was a child, so he got scratched. Even though he became an adult, he showed himself to escape every time there was a problem, rather than finding out what he want to do by himself. Scheherazade always sticks on past stories, through her appearance shows the message that can not easily erase the past. However, in the final part of the novel, Kitaru searches for what he wants to do and Scheherazade shows that she recognized the reality. Also, in contrast to this, Tanimura and Habara are drawn in a solitary figure. This shows a message to Japanese society the writer tried to emphasize. This message can also be found from the title of the novel. Analyzing the meaning of the title, Today shown message that the result of the past that we have been avoided. In other words, through the different consequences of the people appearing in this novel, Murakami Haruki convey the importance to look at the past such as ‘shadow’ that Japanese society and the Japanese has avoided.