Paper short abstract:

In my paper I will examine the reception of Murakami Haruki's works in Italy, both from the point of view of the reading public and of the critical response. I will highlight a type of asymmetry between the “Italian Murakami” and the original, which projects his work in a different dimension.

Paper long abstract:

Murakami is considered one of the most representative authors of World Literature, with emphasis on his capacity of being internationally appreciated. However, it should be remembered that the reception of his works takes on different connotations in different countries. Indeed, the notion of World Literature tends to focus on the homogenization effect inherent in the process of globalization rather than on the varieties of reactions literary works can produce in different cultural environments. It is precisely such a variety that needs to be investigated to rethink World Literature not in terms of its presumed universality but, on the contrary, as a multifaceted and heterogeneous phenomenon, a mosaic rather than a monolith.

In my paper I will examine the reception of Murakami's works in Italy, both from the point of view of the reading public and of the critical response. I will draw a brief picture of their editorial history, characterized by an initial failure and then by a slow but constant success, pointing out the marketing strategies that have most likely contributed to its increased popularity. I will also provide examples related to the critical judgments of his works by Italian intellectuals, who belong to the literary milieu rather than to the academic world. I will highlight the fact that the “Italian Murakami” – by which I mean the Murakami translated, read and interpreted in Italian – at the same time matches and differs from the original. Such dissimilarity creates a sense of slight unbalance, a type of asymmetry which, rather than subtracting value from the original works, projects them in a different dimension, partially "liberated" from authorial control and enriched by new, unexpected readings.