To understand yourself and the other: Metamorphosis and the search of the lost identity in the literary works of Kawakami Hiromi

The paper analyzes three works of Japanese author Kawakami Hiromi, in which the motive of metamorphosis is the central element. Metamorphosis in Kawakami’s fiction is viewed as both the essential part of the mythological worldview and the method, demonstrating the life path of characters. In the short story “Hokusai” the protagonist meets a shapeshifter octopus. On the seashore, the octopus, craving for the love of women, turns into a human, later becoming unable to return to his primal shape. The octopus engages the protagonist in his game and the two of them go to a dark alleyway near a station to secretly watch the women passing by and then to follow one of them. The unstable shapeshifter is a mirror reflecting the main character as well as the catalyst pushing him back to active life, even if by means of revealing the protagonist’s “dark” side. The main character of “Tread on a Snake,” Hiwako, also meets a shapeshifter – a snake, claiming to be her mother and inviting her to a “warm world of snakes.” Because of this, the protagonist has to rethink her family history and to consider the life of people surrounding her, who have shapeshifter-snakes in their houses. In the end, Hiwako resists the final transformation and fights the snake in order to keep her own humanity. The main character of the novel “Someone” transforms seven times during the course of his life due to a genetic mutation, with each form having its own personality and being a metaphor of different stages of life cycle. Finally, the protagonist faces the necessity of consistent development, rather than abrupt changes, which earlier helped him to avoid the communicative issues with others. Thus, the protagonist manages to stop the series of shapeshifts, finding the ultimate integrity in his own being.

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