Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2008. / English Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Texte remanié de: Thesis Ph. D.--Warwick, GB--University of Warwick. / Bibliogr. p. 283-299. Index.

M.A. / This study was prompted principally by two events: reading Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (1989), and encountering Pico lyer's Time article "The Empire Writes Back" (1993). lyer argues that the late twentieth century has been witness to an important event in the world of literature: the emergence of a new generation of writers writing in English, but not necessarily originating from British-colonial (or postcolonial) backgrounds. Among the writers lyer mentions are Vikram Seth, Michael Ondaatje, Ben Okri and - most notably - Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro was born in Japan but emigrated with his parents to the United Kingdom at the age of six. This study focuses on his biculturalism and the impact that his mixed upbringing has had on his style and thematic concerns. This forms the principal focus of the first part of the study. The influence of Japanese writers, that of Japanese film and, finally, that of the European literary tradition are looked at in turn. The core of this study is a comparative analysis of Ishiguro's first three novels: A Pale View of Hills (1982), An Artist of the Floating World (1986), and The Remains of the Day (1989). Here certain common pre-occupations are identified and discussed - chiefly, Ishiguro's concern with memory, with constructions of the past, and his use of "unreliable" first-person narrators. It is argued that Ishiguro returns insistently to these thematic concerns in his first three novels, and that they can therefore be seen as constituting a three-part exploration of the notion of memory, of "reconstructing" the past. A separate chapter briefly examines Ishiguro's most recent work, The Unconsoled (1995), in which these themes are once again present, although they are bodied forth in a strikingly different style. The purpose of examining this novel is mainly to illustrate its formal and stylistic divergence from the first three (far more successful) novels - a divergence which in turn serves to throw into relief the thematic integrity of the first three novels. The study concludes by drawing together the discussion of the first three novels before moving on to a consideration of Ishiguro's place in what has become known as "New Internationalism". Here it is argued that Ishiguro's work has important resemblances to that of other writers loosely grouped into this literary movement and that he deserves his place among this illustrious group of writers who are changing the face of world literature written in English.

Thesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of English, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 11, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-34). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

This dissertation examines the trope of filiation in novels by three contemporary British writers: John Banville, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro. The trope of filiation and the related theme of inheritance has long been central to the concerns of the British novel, but it took on a new significance in the twentieth century, as the novel responded both thematically and formally to the aftermath of the two world wars. This study demonstrates the ways in which Banville, McEwan, and Ishiguro each situate their work in relation to this legacy, by means of an analogy between the inheritance structures figured within their novels and the inheritance performed by their engagement with the genre itself. This study relies on an instructive analogy to similar treatments of the larger problem of cultural filiation by the theorists Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. Levinas exposes in his work the ethical and political problems of modernist temporality by critiquing modernity’s rejection of filiation, a rejection modeled also in the lost children, and barren and celibate men and women of modernist novels. Derrida meanwhile provides a way forward with his representation and performance of inheritance as a critical and transformative act, which is characterised on one hand by an ethical injunction, and on the other, by a filtering or a differentiation which changes the tradition even as it reaffirms it.

This dissertation examines the trope of filiation in novels by three contemporary British writers: John Banville, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro. The trope of filiation and the related theme of inheritance has long been central to the concerns of the British novel, but it took on a new significance in the twentieth century, as the novel responded both thematically and formally to the aftermath of the two world wars. This study demonstrates the ways in which Banville, McEwan, and Ishiguro each situate their work in relation to this legacy, by means of an analogy between the inheritance structures figured within their novels and the inheritance performed by their engagement with the genre itself. This study relies on an instructive analogy to similar treatments of the larger problem of cultural filiation by the theorists Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. Levinas exposes in his work the ethical and political problems of modernist temporality by critiquing modernity’s rejection of filiation, a rejection modeled also in the lost children, and barren and celibate men and women of modernist novels. Derrida meanwhile provides a way forward with his representation and performance of inheritance as a critical and transformative act, which is characterised on one hand by an ethical injunction, and on the other, by a filtering or a differentiation which changes the tradition even as it reaffirms it.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-03-31Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:53:10Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 capellatojunior_el_me_arafcl.pdf: 276039 bytes, checksum: 43006ced07fc1f75b1fe226bee0f10fa (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho analisa o romance When We Were Orphans, de produção do escritor Kazuo Ishiguro, focando o emprego da memória no texto literário, como forma de examinar as estratégias empregadas pelo escritor. A principal preocupação estética do autor britânico volta-se para a maneira como seus personagens lêem e interpretam suas histórias de vida e para como eles percebem as forças que conduzem seus destinos e como reescrevem tais detalhes. A estratégia narrativa adotada é a do emprego da memória marcando a percepção a posteriori que caracteriza o relato. O estudo, portanto, aponta a técnica narrativa ligada aos processos psíquicos constituintes da memória, e auxilia na exposição do sofrimento humano, na crítica sutil ao imperialismo e colonialismo do século XX, tema e motivo de seus romances. Dessa forma, o autor enfatiza as técnicas que as pessoas usam para encobrir e às vezes até para suprimir suas emoções e, em particular, a maneira pela qual tais emoções são estimuladas pela memória. O trabalho terá como suporte teórico os estudos freudianos sobre a memória, o estranho e as experiências ocorridas na infância, particularmente considerando a atuação do narrador, o personagem Christopher Banks, como foco central. / This study analyses the novel When We Were Orphans, as part of the writer Kazuo Ishiguro’s production, focusing the application of the memory in the literary text, as a form of examining the strategies used by the author. The British author’s main aesthetical concern is turned to how his characters read and interpret their life story, and to how they apprehend the forces which lead their destiny, and how they write such details. The adopted narrative strategy is one which engages memory, determining the posteriori perception that characterizes the narration. The study, therefore, indicates the narrative technique linked to psychical processes which constitute memory, and help with the exposition of the human anguish; with the subtle criticism to the 20th century’s imperialism and colonialism, theme and motif of his novels. For that reason, the author emphasizes the techniques people use to cover, and sometimes even to supply their emotions and, particularly the way from which such emotions are aroused by memory. The paper shall have, as theoretical support, the Freudian studies about memory, the strange and the experience occurred during childhood, especially considering the narrator’s performance, the character Christopher Banks., as essential focus.

Gerald Dworkin's influential account of Personal Autonomy offers the following two conditions for autonomy: (i) Authenticity - the condition that one identify with one's beliefs, desires and values after a process of critical reflection, and (ii) Procedural Independence - the identification in (i) must not be "influenced in ways which make the process of identification in some way alien to the individual" (Dworkin 1989:61). I argue in this thesis that there are cases which fulfil both of Dworkin's conditions, yet are clearly not cases of autonomy. Specifically, I argue that we can best assess the adequacy of Dworkin's account of autonomy through literature, because it provides a unique medium for testing his account on the very terms he sets up for himself - ie. that autonomy apply to, and make sense of, persons leading lives of a certain quality. The examination of two novels - Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day and Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady - shows that Dworkin's explanation of identification and critical reflection is inadequate for capturing their role in autonomy and that he does not pay enough attention to the role of external factors in preventing or supporting autonomy. As an alternative, I offer the following two conditions for autonomy: (i) critical reflection of a certain kind - radical reflection, and (ii) the ability to translate the results of (i) into action - competence. The novels demonstrate that both conditions are dependent upon considerations of the content of one's beliefs, desires, values etc. Certain of these will prevent or hinder the achievement of autonomy because of their content, so autonomy must be understood in relation to substantial considerations, rather than in purely formal terms, as Dworkin argues.