Magical Realism in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore

The purpose of this study is to answer the research questions; what elements of magical realism of Wendy B. Faris’ concept are portrayed in Haruki Murakami’s novel entitled Kafka on the Shore and how is the historical world war II reflect Magical realism in Haruki Murakami’s novel entitled Kafka on the Shore. This study aims to analyze the novel by using Magical Realism theory especially focus on five elements of Wendy B. Faris’ concept to find out whether the novel can be regarded as magical realism or not.
Descriptive qualitative research is held in this study because the data which is described and analyzed are the form of word. The research instrument of this study was the writer herself. The data of this study are utterances and author’s narration that contain about magical realism issue. The source of data is a novel entitled Kafka on the Shore written by Haruki Murakami. This study uses five elements of Magical Realism of Wendy B. Faris’ concept.
The result of this study shows that magical realism, because the five elements magical realism of Wendy B. Faris’ concept exist in the novel. Those are; The Irreducible Element, Phenomenal World, Unsettling Doubt, Merging Realism and the last is Disruption of Identity. The history of World War II still represents the real aspect of magical realism, because the realism is represented by the date and place of world war II reflect magical realism in the novel. The history of World War II itself can still be connected to the real life.