Abstract Book of the 8th World Conference on Social Sciences
Year: 2025
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Visual Art as Transcendent Function: Jungian Psychoanalysis in Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore
Hien Nguyen Thi Thu
ABSTRACT:
In Killing Commendatore (2017), Haruki Murakami uniquely situates visual art as a mediator between consciousness and the unconscious, enacting a psychological process comparable to Carl Jung’s transcendent function — a psychological mechanism that generates transformative change. The novel, therefore, presents an intersection between literature and psychoanalysis. Through textual analysis and Jungian theory, this study investigates the way the protagonist’s engagement with the titular painting Killing Commendatore and his artworks enables transformation, wholeness and individuation. Unlike Murakami’s recurring motifs of music or dreams, visual art functions as a psychoanalytic agent. This study not only enriches the analysis on Murakami’s interaction with Jungian theory but also brings a fresh perspective to the role of art in his fiction as a catalyst for psychic transformation.
Keywords: Haruki Murakami, Killing Commendatore, Jungian psychoanalysis, transcendent function, visual art, psychic transformation, Japanese literature, wholeness, individuation