Kazuo Ishiguro

Brief Biography

• 1954 – born in Nagasaki, Japan• 1960 – family move to Guilford, Surrey• 1974 – University of Kent (Eng. / Phil.)• 1979 – Social work & attends UEA Creative

writing MA (Angela Carter – mentor)• 1982 – ‘A Pale View of the Hills’• 1986 – ‘An Artist of the Floating World’

(shortlisted for the Booker prize)

Brief Biography

• 1989 – ‘Remains of the Day’ (wins Booker prize)

• 1992 – Daughter Naomi born • 1992 – ‘Remains of the Day’ film is

nominated for 8 Oscars• 1995 – OBE for service to literature• 2000 – 2 Screenplays – ‘The Saddest Music in

the World’ & ‘The white Countess’• 2005 – ‘Never Let Me Go’

Literary Influences

Anton Chekhov

Literary Influences

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Literary Influences

Franz Kafka

Literary Influences

Henry James

Literary Influences

Samuel Beckett

“For me, the creative process has never been about anger or violence, as it is with some people; it’s more to do with regret or melancholy.”

(linked to displacement from his extended family following the move from Japan at the age of 5)

• In his novels characters often seek consolation for loss in their lives. They revisit traumatic events of the past and move towards an uncertain future.

• Their stories are cathartic, allowing them to comprehend and come to terms with their loss

• Ishiguro’s wife Lorna MacDougal is a social worker and they both share an empathy for the disenfranchised and the alienated.

• This sense of compassion and humanism is often found reflected in his writing

• While the main characters in Ishiguro’s work are often self absorbed, their quest for consolation is universal

“As a writer in exile, Ishiguro keenly and sympathetically portrays people searching for their souls and a way to feel at home despite their pain.”

“His novels demonstrate clearly some of the ways he and his characters have discovered solace in an often inconsolable world.”

Narrative Methods

• Anticipative devices• Flashbacks & non-linearity• A balance between Homo-diegetic narration

(part of the story) and Extra-diegetic narration (superior to the story)

• Self consciously flawed recall• Direct and personal engagement with the

reader

• Ishiguro has stated that his 1st person narrators use “the language of self deception and self protection” to convey their life stories (they lie to comfort themselves through duplicitous language) – they seek the truth but find ways of evading access to it because it is painful

• They are self consciously manipulating their narrative function and the reader’s response is usually empathetic as their apparent vulnerability softens their deception

WE ALL FICTIONALIZE OUR LIVES AND MEMORY IS

RECONSTRUCCTIVE!

“I wanted to actually have the world of the book distorted, adopting the logic of the author. In paintings you often see that. Expressionist art is sometimes distorted to reflect the emotion of the artist who is looking at the world...(I am then) able to explore people’s inner looking at the world.”

“The futility of his characters’ plights, coupled with their ability to remain forward looking adds a poignant dimension to the author’s view of the world.”

•The characters’ trauma is steadily brought to light as if the reader were encountering its revelation and implications along with the narrator

“One of the sad things about people’s lives is that they are so short.” (interview 2000)

• Notice that the characters’ lives are indelibly charted for them – in the face of forces larger than them and with a limited vision of the world, they are forced into resignation to their fate, however terrible it might be

Nagasaki August 6th 1945

Nagasaki August 6th 1945

Dr Ian Wilmut & Dolly 1996

8th Feb 2005 – Scotland’s Roslin Institute

The right was granted to clone human embryos for disease research