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Nowhere and everywhere: Navigating gendered urban spaces in Haruki Murakami’s After Dark
Abstract
Nowhere and everywhere: Navigating gendered urban spaces in Haruki Murakami’s After Dark
Urban space has been one of the most underexplored elements analyzed in literary works. However, as urban space gradually emerges as a culturally influencing element, a casual perusal of any text that employs urban space might result in an oversimplified analysis. This study examines the urban space of After Dark (2004), authored by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (b. 1949). Accounting for the ways urban space is interwoven with the socio-cultural context, this study establishes a spatial reading of Murakami’s After Dark through the description of the city. With a poststructuralist approach, this study discusses how urban space is utilized and how it serves as an important part of the text instead of a mere backdrop; it reinforces the possibilities of setting as a thematic approach to major issues such as self-identity and the marginalization of women. As it is concluded, the urban space the novel presents have succeeded to show that they form, to some extent, women’s behaviours both directly and indirectly. Hence, the setting may present the main theme further analysed.
Keywords: urban space, spatiality, women, self-identity, marginalization
Tak di sana dan di mana pun: Menavigasi ruang kota bergender pada novel After Dark karya Haruki Murakami
Selama ini ruang urban masih menjadi unsur yang paling kurang digali dalam menganalisis karya sastra. Namun demikian, seiring dengan kenyataan bahwa ruang urban lambat-laun hadir sebagai unsur yang secara kultural berpengaruh, kajian kasual mengenai suatu teks yang memanfaatkan ruang urban mungkin justru menghasilkan analisis yang terlalu sederhana. Kajian ini menelisik ruang urban After Dark (2004), hasil karya pengarang Jepang, Haruki Murakami (lahir 1949). Dengan berpusat pada cara-cara ruang urban berjalin berkelindan dengan kontek sosio-budaya, kajian ini menghadirkan pembacaan ruang terhadap karya Murakami yang berjudul After Dark melalui deskripsi tentang kota yang digunakan sebagai latar. Dengan pendekatan pascastruktural, kajian ini membahas bagaimana ruang urban dimanfaatkan serta bagaimana hal tersebut menjadi bagian penting dari teks dan bukan hanya sekadar latar belakang; hal ini mendorong hadirnya kemungkinan latar sebagai subjek tematik untuk membahas isu-isu besar seperti identitas diri dan marjinalisasi perempuan. Sebagaimana yang diperoleh di kesimpulan, ruang urban yang ditampilkan dalam novel ini telah berhasil menunjukkan kemampuannya untuk membentuk perilaku tokoh-tokoh wanitanya baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung. Dengan demikian, latar tempat dapat menunjukkan tema utama sebuah karya yang layak diteliti lebih lanjut.
Kata kunci: ruang urban, spatialitas, perempuan, identitas-diri, marjinalisasi
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17977/um015v49i22021p240
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