An introduction to Ishiguro used in an A level class on dystopic fiction.

1. Kazuo Ishiguro

2. 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)

3. 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’

4. Literary Influences Anton Chekhov

5. Literary Influences Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. Literary Influences Franz Kafka

7. Literary Influences Henry James

8. Literary Influences Samuel Beckett

9. “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)

10. 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

11. 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

12. “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.”

13. 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

14. 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

15. WE ALL FICTIONALIZE OUR LIVES AND MEMORY IS RECONSTRUCCTIVE!

16. “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.”

21. 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

22. Nagasaki August 6th 1945

23. Nagasaki August 6th 1945

24. Dr Ian Wilmut & Dolly 1996

25. 8th Feb 2005 – Scotland’s Roslin Institute The right was granted to clone human embryos for disease research