Fantasy, dream and desire in the works of David Lynch and Haruki Murakami

Abstract

David Lynch and Haruki Murakami are two of the contemporary authors who have succeeded the most at creating their own universe. As a starting point, this paper analyses how their works develop the concept of the fantastic, as it was theorized by Tzvetan Todorov. After attending to the convergences between both authors, this paper suggests some differences in the treatment of the quotidian: Murakami seems to find some gratification in it, whereas Lynch seems to consider satisfaction hardly possible. Finally, dream and desire are taken as topics that would lead to the traumatic collision with the lacanian real, which breaks into the symbolic order that would constitute our subjectivity and reality as we experience it.