Introduction: ‘It’s Good Manners, Really’ — Kazuo Ishiguro and the Ethics of Empathy

Groes, Sebastian; Lewis, Barry

doi:10.1007/978-0-230-34526-3_1

Cited by 3 publications

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“…His novel The Remains of The Day (1989) explores how memory's ambiguity can be harnessed to assert control over traumatic recollections, leading to self-deception as a means of coping with the past. As Groes and Lewis (2011) argue, Ishiguro aims to restore human dignity and the possibility of bringing meaning and worth to human existence (pp. 3,7).…”

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confidence: 99%

Exploring Memory Inhibition Techniques in Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day

Alharbi,

Alamri

2024

jhsss

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This paper offers a psychoanalytical reading of the human memory’s dilemma as portrayed by Tan Twan Eng in The Garden of Evening Mists (2011) and Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the Day (1989). Its objective is to analyze the role of memory in shaping the fragmented self, particularly in the context of the trauma from the world wars, employing a psychoanalytical perspective demonstrated through Michael Anderson’s memory inhibition techniques and Carl Jung’s theories on active imagination, which prioritize the unconscious mind. The study applies two methods of selective memory to the protagonists’ behaviors: retrieval-induced forgetting in Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and the think/no-think paradigms in Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists. These approaches aim to explore the role of intention in these inhibition processes and investigate whether these experiences yield positive or negative outcomes. Through a close analysis of the main characters’ repressed memories, the study argues that the protagonists employ selective memory techniques differently. In The Garden of Evening Mists, intentional and positive utilization of these techniques helps overcome the horrors of war. Conversely, in The Remains of the Day, unintentional and negative application enhances the illusion of falsely representing oneself. This study’s primary contribution lies in exploring the mechanisms underlying the control of postcolonial/imperial traumatic memories. Additionally, it delves into the significance of the natural world in the protagonists’ healing and recovery revealing that gardens serve as a metaphor for recovery due to their profound impacts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Memory Inhibition Techniques in Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day

Alharbi,

Alamri

2024

jhsss

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Ishiguro and the abandoned child: The parody of international crisis and representation in When We Were Orphans

Dean

2018

The Journal of Commonwealth Literature

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National Identities, Personal Crises: Amnesia in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant

Charlwood

2018

Open Cultural Studies

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This article considers how Ishiguro’s 2015 novel about mass forgetting in post-Arthurian Britain adds to debates about what it means to be a human living within a society. There are four areas of enquiry linked by their emphasis on the interdependence of remembering and forgetting: ideas of memory in nationhood; the depiction of the British landscape; the cognitive process of recognition; and the emotional aspects of remembering. Interdisciplinary in scope, this article uses evidence from psychological studies of memory alongside detailed close readings of the text, allowing a more precise analysis of the role of the narrator and the effect of Ishiguro’s text on the reader. By keeping his previous corpus in view throughout, it evaluates Ishiguro’s continued use of memory and nationality as themes, while demonstrating the new departures offered by the conjunction of an ancient setting and a contemporary reading audience. One of the first sustained critical efforts on The Buried Giant, this article puts the novel firmly on the agenda of literary, cultural and memory studies respectively.

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Introduction: ‘It’s Good Manners, Really’ — Kazuo Ishiguro and the Ethics of Empathy

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Exploring Memory Inhibition Techniques in Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day

Exploring Memory Inhibition Techniques in Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mists and Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day

Ishiguro and the abandoned child: The parody of international crisis and representation in When We Were Orphans

National Identities, Personal Crises: Amnesia in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant

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