무라카미 하루키(村上春樹)의 『기사단장 죽이기(騎士団長殺し)』속 과거사 인식 고찰 - 주요 세대를 통해 본 역사 소거의 문제와 계승의 의무 -

Abstract

This study analyzes the fundamental cause of the historical revisionism prevalent in Japanese society, focusing on <Killing Commendatore>, which depicts the Nanjing Massacre, a historical error in Japan, and which reflects a change in the subject matter of writer Haruki Murakami. The insertion of the “Nanjing Massacre” into the work serves to evoke the history of its perpetrators in society. The novel also depicts various generations, from the war generation that started the Pacific War to the present. Murakami’s works thus far show the peculiarity that only the “baby boomers,” called personas, are absent. After the war, Japan’s economy significantly grew thanks to the sacrifice and struggle of the baby boomers. However, the baby boomers avoided responsibility for the war and overlooked the important mission of inheriting history. In the end, the disconnect from the past they created gave birth to the next generation, who lost their roots. Therefore, the absence of baby boomers in the work symbolizes the “erasure” of history. Furthermore, the novel depicts “I” inheriting the spirit of Tomohiko and trying to find Marie, who has disappeared. This shows the responsibilities of the baby boomers, who play a central role in modern society. find Marie, “I” must kill the Knight Commander, a product of her past. The Knight Commander justifies this as “death for rebirth” and “killing the evil father.” The acts of killing the Knight Commander, the idea of the past, with his own hands, and receiving his blood symbolize accepting the history he has avoided as part of himself. In other words, it is an important scene conveying the message that the next generation can achieve the right future only when the next generation accomplishes a series of tasks that their parents’ generation failed to accomplish. In this way, it can be said that the appearance of various generations in this novel serves to show that society was not created in an instant but is a product of the “present” created as the accumulated past of the previous generation.