The Vocational Imperative: Kazuo Ishiguro's Fictions and the Discourse of Denial
type: CreativeWork
description: The reflective first-person narratives of Ishiguro's texts contain a representation of the way in which people's immersion in hegemony, combined with the demands of a disciplinary society, results in the internalisation of hegemonic values. This sophisticated understanding of the individual subject's relationship with his or her social environment puts Ishiguro in tune with ideas presented by various twentieth-century theorists. This thesis introduces the concepts of 'interpretive consonance' and 'vocational imperative' as a means of understanding Ishiguro's writing as a fictional embodiment and exploration of these ideas. Following a general introduction, the first chapter establishes frames for a reading of Ishiguro's works by elucidating the theoretical underpinning of the concepts of interpretive consonance and vocational imperative. I use Gramsci's notions of hegemony and consent to clarify the concept of interpretive consonance, the idea that the uncritical ingestion of a particular set of social values shapes Ishiguro's narrators' perceptions of events in their surroundings. That is, their interpretation of their environments is consonant with the hegemonic values that they have assimilated. Foucault's analysis of power and discourse is then used to explain the development of the functionally based subjectivity of Ishiguro's narrators and their almost fanatical adherence to the confines of their vocations - the notion that they are bound by a vocational imperative. Freud's concept of the super-ego is then utilised to explain the individual psychological dynamic involved in shaping the personal identities of Ishiguro's narrators around their vocations. Subsequent chapters follow the chronological order of Ishiguro's novels. In them, I use the concepts of interpretive consonance and vocational imperative to explore Ishiguro's writing. Chapter two, on A Pale View of Hills, emphasises Ishiguro's use of hegemony and the discourse of motherhood in his construction …
abstract: The reflective first-person narratives of Ishiguro's texts contain a representation of the way in which people's immersion in hegemony, combined with the demands of a disciplinary society, results in the internalisation of hegemonic values. This sophisticated understanding of the individual subject's relationship with his or her social environment puts Ishiguro in tune with ideas presented by various twentieth-century theorists. This thesis introduces the concepts of 'interpretive consonance' and 'vocational imperative' as a means of understanding Ishiguro's writing as a fictional embodiment and exploration of these ideas. Following a general introduction, the first chapter establishes frames for a reading of Ishiguro's works by elucidating the theoretical underpinning of the concepts of interpretive consonance and vocational imperative. I use Gramsci's notions of hegemony and consent to clarify the concept of interpretive consonance, the idea that the uncritical ingestion of a particular set of social values shapes Ishiguro's narrators' perceptions of events in their surroundings. That is, their interpretation of their environments is consonant with the hegemonic values that they have assimilated. Foucault's analysis of power and discourse is then used to explain the development of the functionally based subjectivity of Ishiguro's narrators and their almost fanatical adherence to the confines of their vocations - the notion that they are bound by a vocational imperative. Freud's concept of the super-ego is then utilised to explain the individual psychological dynamic involved in shaping the personal identities of Ishiguro's narrators around their vocations. Subsequent chapters follow the chronological order of Ishiguro's novels. In them, I use the concepts of interpretive consonance and vocational imperative to explore Ishiguro's writing. Chapter two, on A Pale View of Hills, emphasises Ishiguro's use of hegemony and the discourse of motherhood in his construction …
author: Webley, Alyn
language: eng
date published: 2008
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:38:59Z
provider: University of South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of South Wales