This dissertation demonstrates how the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami infuses religious concepts and sacred motifs into his works, generally through surreal events and otherworldly encounters that defy purely realist interpretations. The literary use of these images and themes encourage the author’s unique stylistic mood as well as subsequent magic realist readings, where everyday occurrences are interjected by providential asides and often overt references to the supernatural. This study of Murakami also helps to demonstrate how his postmodern works might be viewed in light of widely accepted narratives from varying religions. Certain trends are established in Murakami, especially via themes like isolation and loneliness, which help replace the traditional search for God with an internal quest for meaning through investigations of identity. This is especially accomplished using the Japanese I-Novel form. The addition of dreams and alternative realities, another common topic, represent other worlds in his fiction that mask Heaven and Hell. The sacred is also habitually linked with the profane and cultish behaviour, casting traditional religious concepts in a negative light. Throughout his career, Murakami has often incorporated a range of ideas from all manner of religious systems, specifically Buddhism, Christianity, and folk mythology. This dissertation, then, addresses a range of critical views on Murakami's fiction, especially considering thematic shifts in later works like 1Q84, which feature concepts of religion and the sacred in a more blatant way. / published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [206]-213).

This study will offer a close examination of Literature and Religion, investigating the parallels in central preoccupations, areas of exploration and modes of discourse which exist between them. There will be a particular emphasis on the way in which Literature and Religion articulate their concerns, i.e., on the language in which their ideas and investigations are expressed. In this regard, we will focus on the essential narrative structures integral to literary and religious discourse. Closely linked to this, there will be an examination of the role of the Imagination as the principal source of inspiration, persuasive power and narrative force in both Literature and Religion. This examination will include an in-depth analysis of the "vocabulary" and "grammar of the Imagination 111 with close attention to metaphor, myth and symbol as the primary components of Imaginative discourse.

Thesis advisor: Dominic Doyle / Thesis advisor: Matthew Potts / It will be argued that the Word became incarnate in the world to lead us back to God the Creator, and this exitus and reditus is given and received in human language. In like manner, the words of great literature can direct our attention and reinvigorate the modern cosmic imaginary with a Christian imagination, instructing the reader to engage in a dive into the particulars of his or her concrete life. In mining those details, s/he can attain insights. We will call this trek of inquiry a via litteraria — connecting our lives with the life of God, by way of literature. To that end we will focus on the work of the American Christian writer of fiction and essays, Marilynne Robinson, who is a prime example of this via litteraria. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1974. / Bibliography: leaves 38-39.

Thesis--Münster. / Cover title. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-198).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Rostock, 1934. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-[117]).

Inaug.-diss.--Marburg. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. vii-ix.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of History, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2954. Adviser: Robert Markley. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 314-365) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.