Memory and Place in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World

Abstract

[eng] Research on the issue of memory in An Artist of the Floating World has focused on the diverse narrative techniques that this novel encompasses, to show that memory serves as a medium for the narrator to understand his past in order to assimilate into the present. However, little attention has been paid to the different settings that the narrator constantly reiterates and describes in his memoir. This paper aims to fill this gap by analysing the connection between places and memory in the novel. Based on an exhaustive reading of the narrative, this dissertation will consider both individual and collective memory, which are shaped by the ever-changing environment of the post-war Japan. It is proved that the narrator is unable to reminiscence the past without digressing to a specific location, and that places are carriers of memory and meaning, in which the individual and the group construct their identity. As such, the spatial context is found to be essential since it provides a better understanding of the past.