The Narrators and Narratees of Kazuo Ishiguro

<p>My thesis examines the narratees of three novels by Kazuo Ishiguro: <em>An Artist of the Floating World</em>, <em>The Remains of the Day</em>, and <em>Never Let Me Go</em>. In each novel, a first person narrator directs his or her story toward an unidentified narratee. Through their narration, the narrators reveal who they imagine their narratees to be and why they are telling their stories to these particular types of people. In relating their narratives, Ono, Stevens, and Kathy H., the respective narrators, each reveal a secret they have sought to hide from the other characters in the novel, a past action of which they are ashamed and for which they desire to confess and offer justification in the hopes of receiving absolution. Ono reveals to his narratee that he used his art to further the Imperialist movement in pre-World War II Japan and caused the arrest of one of his anti-Imperialist students. Stevens, a British butler narrating from 1956, admits to loyally serving an aristocrat who was both a Nazi sympathizer and an anti-Semite. As part of a cloning program in an alternative 1990s England, Kathy H. calmly submits to and assists a system that will eventually harvest her vital organs for use by others. Unable to find anyone to sympathize with them, understand their reasons for acting as they did, or forgive them for their mistakes, the three narrators turn to narratees they imagine to be much like themselves. Through their relationships with their narratees, these narrators grapple with guilt, responsibility, self-deception, and autonomy in their various contexts.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Harrell, Katherine E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jan Gorak, Ph.D.
• Susan Walter, Ph.D.
• Adam Rovner

• Absolution
• Confession
• Narratee
• Narrator
• Arts and Humanities
• English Language and Literature

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/270

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1269