Postmodern Surrealism in the Second Attack on the Bakery Since its inception, surrealist media has been able to capture our attention with its abstract and thought-provoking nature. It started with literature and spread to all other forms of expression around the world. Although it had gained such fame, it was not until The Second Bakery Attack was published in a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami that Surrealist literature arrived in Japan. The Second Bakery Attack stood out above all other literary publications of its time, receiving universally positive reviews and revolutionizing the way Japan viewed literature. The story is set in modern times and revolves around a newlywed couple who wake up one night with a strange and powerful hunger. The narrator is the husband who, speaking in the first person, dictates his thoughts on the unfolding of events. The pair soon embark on a mission to rob a bakery to break their "curse" of hunger. Throughout the story, strange situations arise which the husband himself is convinced are normal aspects of married life. To clarify the husband's feelings towards his wife, Murakami uses a vivid and metaphorical image of a volcano under the sea. By using a unique and original postmodern surrealist style and descriptive imagery in the short story The Second Bakery Attack, Haruki Murakami was able to bring to life a new era of surrealist literature in Japan. This originality served to break away from the realism of the traditional Japanese novel and to attract Japanese people of the time who desired literature with a more Western approach. Giving the main characters of the story only an understanding of their strange behavior. , Murakami broke away from the conventions of the stan......middle of paper......abolished norm of the time and created a masterpiece. The Second Attack on the Bakery will always be remembered as one of the first masterpieces of Japanese postmodern surrealist literature. If it weren't for Murakami it's possible that Japan would not have escaped the cliché of the I-novel. Works Cited "Surrealism". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. November 17, 2009. "Murakami Haruki." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. November 17, 2009 .Suzuki, Tomi. Narrating the self: fictions of Japanese modernity. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1996. Murakami, Haruki. "Haruki Murakami: The Second Attack on the Bakery". 11/02/09