In Search of the Real: Technology, Shock and Language in the Writings of Haruki Murakami

Michael Fisch was born inChicago,Illinoisand moved toIsraelat the age of 18. He studied for his BA in East Asian Studies atMcGillUniversityand for his MA in Area Studies atCornellUniversity. He then began his PhD in East Asian Studies atTelAvivUniversitybefore spending two years as a Monbusho research student atHitotsubashiUniversityinTokyo. Afterwards, he transferred to a PhD in anthropology atColumbiaUniversity. He is currently based inJapan, where he is conducting fieldwork into the contemporary experience of time in urbanTokyoby examining the relationship between the train system and the flow of time.

 Michael Fisch was awarded the Daiwa Japan Forum Prize 2005 for his article ‘In Search of the Real: Technology, Shock and Language in Murakami Haruki’s Sputnik  Sweetheart’ (Vol. 16, No.3 2004).

 The Daiwa Japan Forum Prize was inaugurated in 2001 and is awarded for the best article submitted to ‘Japan Forum’ in the last year by a junior scholar. The official journal of the British Association for Japanese Studies, ‘Japan Forum’ provides a comprehensive source of analytical articles in the field of Japanese Studies, and makes scholarship onJapanavailable to an international readership of specialists and non-specialists. It is published by Routledge.