Short Stories by Haruki Murakami
This unit on selected short stories by Haruki Murakami is designed to…
- develop close reading skills.
- engage students in critical thinking about why writers use “the strange” and “the surreal” to explore ideas and issues related to the human experience.
- develop an appreciation for stylistic choices that support the genre and consider their ambiguous meanings.
- give students an opportunity to independently apply their understanding of the genre and their reading skills by selecting a few short stories by Haruki Murakami to explore on their own.
Teaching Resources
Word
A Note about the Resources
The Stories
“The Ice Man” is taken from The New Yorker; at the time this post was written, a full copy was also available here. The other three stories: “Little Green Monsters”, “TV People” and “The Elephant Vanishes” are taken from the collection The Elephant Vanishes.
The Elephant Vanishes Supplement
These are the teacher generated “3-star” questions for students to use in the “3-star activity” for the story “The Elephant Vanishes”.
Choice
The unit ends with students applying their understanding of the genre and their close reading and analysis skills to Murakami’s other stories and presenting. Murakami’s works are catalogued on his website.
Photo by Stephan Streuders from Pexels