The self as multiplicity in the works of Murakami Haruki

The works of Murakami Haruki often explore problems of self and identity, particularly in relation to society. In Kafka on the Shore, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in particular, the self is presented as a multiplicity, both mutable and divisible. Using Gilles Deleuzes model of the two-tier world of the baroque and Paul Ricoeurs living metaphor, I examine the ways the self enacts change, despite dangers present in the very act of confronting the self. I argue that, as a multiplicity, the self emerges as a site of potentiality.