UNFOLDING THE NARRATIVE CYCLE IN KAWAGUCHI’S BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD: A STUDY IN NARRATIVE SEMIOLOGY

Abstract

This paper analyses the narrative structure of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold with the help of narrative semiology and structuralist theory. With the frameworks of Roland Barthes, Vladimir Propp, A. J. Greimas and Tzvetan Todorov, the research examines how the novel builds meaning from the symbolic patterns and cyclical narrative functions used in text and character actants. In accordance with the pattern of narrative equilibrium suggested by Todorov, containing such steps as initial equilibrium, disruption, recognition, repair and new equilibrium, the text of the selected novel oscillates through emotional state of disequilibrium and recovery rather than the external confrontation. In place of the standard of a conflict and resolution curve, the selected work shows inner and metaphysical adversaries, including time, death, guilt, and emotional regrets. Each unit of the selected text follows the form of a closed narrative cycle of amelioration, dissolution, and symbolic transformation (Greimas’ actantial roles; Proppian functions) in a constrained, recursive time travel world. Further, the cafe function is that of liminal and magical helper space, allowing the characters to seek closure without a change of the present. Through this, the narrative takes on Barthes’ hermeneutic and symbolic codes, and does not use time travel as a plot device for the purpose of suspense but as a semiotic device for emotional and psychological depth. The study contends that Before the Coffee Gets Cold is an unusual blending of Eastern philosophical thinking with Western structuralist narrative tenets with the emphasis on the emotional rather than the causal, the climactic rather than the a developmental narrative outcome. Considering Kawaguchi’s novel in terms of the coherent view of all narrative theories, the paper helps to discover how contemporary fiction reconstitutes the general narrative roles and function in responding to modern concerns of memory, mourning, and making peace with life.