Ageing without remembering: Fantasy, memory and loss in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant

Falcus, Sarah; Oró-Piqueras, Maricel

doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2020.100879

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ishiguro embedded hints about the characters' traumas by masking them in a seemingly mundane passages when, in actuality, they are hiding the pains of the narrators of the stories. In one study, Ageing Without Remembering: Fantasy, Memory and Loss in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, the theme of aging and how the elderly are treated as burden are discussed, revealing human's vulnerability and the cyclical nature of traumas (Falcus & Oró-Piqueras, 2020). In How to Employ Nagasaki: Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills (1982), distortions of memories of the main character of the novel, Etsuko, due to traumas is explored, divulging the flawed nature of the human mind (Akiyoshi, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mourning One’s Own Mortality: Analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Utami

2023

Aksara

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mortality is one of the aspects of the cycle of life that are feared by humans since it is inevitable. This article investigates Kazuo Ishiguro's work entitled Never Let Me Go, a dystopian novel set in England in a fictional world in the 90s, further. The novel tells the story of a woman named Kathy H. and is told from her perspective and highlights her life’s story growing up at a private school called Hailsham. The novel is analyzed using close reading through the lens of mourning and melancholia as well as the concept of memory. Kathy H.'s narrative of remembering and retelling past events is something that is emphasized in this study. It can be gathered that Kathy H.'s narration of remembering and retelling events in her past as an unreliable narrator and as a clone reveals herself as an individual and that telling her story is her way of coping with all the losses she experienced throughout her life and her way of accepting and mourning her own impending death.AbstrakMortalitas merupakan salah satu aspek siklus kehidupan yang ditakuti manusia karena hal ini tidak dapat dihindari. Artikel ini menyelidiki lebih jauh karya Kazuo Ishiguro yang berjudul Never Let Me Go, sebuah novel distopia dengan latar Inggris yang ada dalam dunia fiksi pada tahun 90-an. Novel bercerita tentang seorang wanita bernama Kathy H. dan dikisahkan dari sudut pandangnya dan mengangkat seluk beluk kehidupannya saat tumbuh besar di sebuah sekolah swasta bernama Hailsham. Novel dianalisis menggunakan close reading melalui lensa mourning (berkabung) dan melancholia (melankolia) serta konsep ingatan. Narasi Kathy H. mengingat dan menceritakan kembali peristiwa masa lalu menjadi hal yang digarisbawahi dalam studi ini. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa penarasian Kathy H. mengingat dan menceritakan kembali kejadian pada masa lalunya sebagai seorang unreliable narrator dan seorang klon menunjukkan dirinya sebagai seorang individu serta mengungkap hal tersebut adalah caranya menghadapi semua kehilangan yang dialami sepanjang hidupnya dan juga caranya untuk menerima dan berkabung atas kematiannya sendiri yang akan datang.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mourning One’s Own Mortality: Analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Utami

2023

Aksara

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The philosophy of collective memory in the novel “The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro

Bai

2023

Journal of Aging Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Life after Youth

Ohm

2023

Edition Kulturwissenschaft

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Middle Ages, despite its real existence, is often seen and used by fantasy writers as a tabula rasa to engrave their imagined stories. Its seeming state of blankness due to its distant time and lack of recorded histories allows the period to be used as a background for imaginative creations of creatures, peoples, and stories to engage with social issues pertaining to specific periods and places as well as the same issues that arise in different forms depending on the period and location. This article explores J.R.R. Tolkien's works on Middle-earth and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant to illustrate how fantasy literature engages with the concept of (eternal-)youth and ageing. While Tolkien disrupts the idealization of (eternal-)youth through the fates of humans and imaginative races, Kazuo Ishiguro presents the value, growth and meaningfulness of life up until its very end by having readers follow the quest of an elderly couple. Both Tolkien and Ishiguro illuminate the meaningfulness and value of the lives of the aged up until the brink of death.

show abstract

Ageing without remembering: Fantasy, memory and loss in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant

Cited by 4 publications

References 2 publications

Mourning One’s Own Mortality: Analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Mourning One’s Own Mortality: Analysis of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

The philosophy of collective memory in the novel “The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro

Life after Youth

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About