Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Kazuo Ishiguro in the World
- 1 Ishiguro and the Question of England
- 2 Ishiguro and Japan
- 3 Ishiguro and Colonialism
- 4 Immigration and Emigration in Ishiguro
- 5 Ishiguro and Translation
- Part II Literature, Music, and Film
- Part III Ethics, Affect, Agency, and Memory
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
3 - Ishiguro and Colonialism
from Part I - Kazuo Ishiguro in the World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Kazuo Ishiguro in the World
- 1 Ishiguro and the Question of England
- 2 Ishiguro and Japan
- 3 Ishiguro and Colonialism
- 4 Immigration and Emigration in Ishiguro
- 5 Ishiguro and Translation
- Part II Literature, Music, and Film
- Part III Ethics, Affect, Agency, and Memory
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
While not typically considered a postcolonial writer, Ishiguro’s work often engages with the question of British and Japanese imperialism and colonialism, either directly in works such as An Artist of the Floating World, When We Were Orphans, and the Ishiguro-scripted film The White Countess, or through subtle allusion to the American post-war occupation of Japan in A Pale View of Hills or the Suez Crisis in The Remains of the Day. Writing from the ‘inside’, from the perspective of individuals who are unwittingly complicit in the structures of oppression entailed by colonial rule, Ishiguro offers complex and unsettlingly sympathetic depictions of the psychological denials and displacements that allow individuals to operate within these regimes. Focusing on An Artist of the Floating World, When We Were Orphans, and The White Countess, this chapter responds to the ways in which Ishiguro’s fiction attends to the relationship between individual and collective responsibility and historico-political forces.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Kazuo Ishiguro , pp. 41 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023