THE JAZZ IMPRINT IN NOVEL KILLING COMMENDATORE BY HARUKI MURAKAMI

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2025-0039

Abstract

This article examines the influence of Jazz on Haruki Murakami’s novel Killing Commendatore, focusing on how the novel leverages Jazz’s polyphonic and syncopated qualities to shape its narrative form. Through an interdisciplinary methodology that combines literary poetics with close textual analysis, the study illuminates the intricate interplay between music and language in Murakami’s artistic universe. Jazz does more than appear as a thematic presence it infuses the novel’s very structure. In dialogue with the spirit of Jazz, Murakami’s fiction moves beyond conventional storytelling, unfolding instead as a kind of narrative improvisation, rich in tonal variation and rhythmic nuance. Jazz's improvisational nature serves as an endless source of inspiration for Murakami's creative process. Murakami reimagines the novel as a musical form, transforming Jazz’s spirit of improvisation into a distinctive artistic discourse— one that reasserts the vital role of music in shaping the poetics of the contemporary novel.