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; its 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

 Ishiguros 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 Ishiguros 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 readers 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 peoples 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 authors
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 peoples 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 Scotlands Roslin Institute

The right was granted to clone human
embryos for disease research