Title: Exploring Identity and National Crisis in Kazuo Ishiguro's "An Artist of the Floating World"
Name:- Pallavi Parmar
Batch:- M.A. Sem 2 (2023-2025)
Enrollment Number:- 5108230034
E-mail Address: pallaviparmar501@gmail.com
Roll Number:- 20
Assignment Details:-
Topic:- Exploring Identity and National Crisis in Kazuo Ishiguro's "An Artist of the Floating World"
Subject Code: 22400
Paper- 107- The Twentieth Century Literature: From World War II to the End of the Century
Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU,Bhavnagar.
Date of Submission:-26, April,2024.
Table of Contents :
Abstract
Keywords
About Kazuo Ishiguro
About "An Artist of the Floating World" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nation
Unreliable Narrator/Selective Memory
Post-War Japan
American Cultural Influence
Characterization of Masuji Ono
Conclusion
References
Abstract:
"An Artist of the Floating World" by Kazuo Ishiguro (1986) explores the post-World War II identity crisis of Japan through the unreliable narration of Masuji Ono, a former propagandist artist. Themes of guilt, aging, and the impact of Japan's wartime actions intersect with Ono's personal journey of self-reflection and acceptance. The novel navigates generational conflicts, the shifting national identity of Japan, and the complexities of individual culpability amidst historical upheaval. Through Ono's selective memory and the novel's portrayal of post-war Japan, Ishiguro delves into the fluid nature of identity construction and the ongoing negotiation of personal and national redemption.
Keywords: Kazuo Ishiguro, post-World War II, identity crisis, unreliable narration, generational conflicts, national identity, redemption.
About Kazuo Ishiguro:
Background : Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, on November 8, 1954.
Immigration : His family immigrated to Great Britain in 1960.
Education : He attended the universities of Kent and East Anglia, earning a B.A. in 1978 and an M.A. in 1980, respectively.
Literary Beginnings : Ishiguro gained recognition with his contributions to the anthology Introduction 7: Stories by New Writers in 1981.
Major Works :
A Pale View of Hills (1982): Explores postwar memories of a Japanese woman dealing with her daughter's suicide.
An Artist of the Floating World (1986): Chronicles the life of Masuji Ono, a former political artist in post WWII Japan.
The Remains of the Day (1989): A Booker Prize winning novel narrated by Stevens, an English butler.
Career Milestones : With The Remains of the Day , Ishiguro became one of Europe's best known novelists at 35 years old.
Stylistic Departure : The Unconsoled (1995) marked a departure from Ishiguro's earlier works, focusing on lack of communication and emotion.
Later Works :
When We Were Orphans (2000): A crime fiction novel set during the Sino Japanese War.
Never Let Me Go (2005): Explores ethical questions raised by genetic engineering through the story of human clones.
The Buried Giant (2015): An existential fantasy tale influenced by Arthurian legend.
Klara and the Sun (2021): Set in the near future, focusing on a droid serving as an "Artificial Friend" to a lonely child.
Other Contributions : Wrote screenplays for British television and feature films, including The Saddest Music in the World (2003) and The White Countess (2005).
Honors : Awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1995, knighted in 2019.
Nobel Prize : Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017 for his works uncovering the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.
About An Artist of Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro:
Title : An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (1986)
Setting : Post World War II Japan during the American occupation.
Protagonist: Masuji Ono, a retired artist recalling his past.
Themes :
> Guilt, aging, and solitude
> The impact of Japan's postwar reckoning and the American occupation
> Reflections on art, family, life, and posterity
Narrative Style:
> Unreliable narration, with Ono recalling his past from a subjective viewpoint.
Plot :
> Ono's reflections on his past as a respected artist and his involvement with pro government activities.The challenges he faces in peacetime, including the marriage negotiations of his daughter.
Character Development:
>Ono's gradual realization and acceptance of his past actions and their consequences.
Critical Reception:
Praised for its haunting beauty, delicacy of prose, and exploration of complex themes. (McCrum and Hosseini)
Nation:
Ono was once a celebrated artist whose patriotic propaganda artwork helped promote Japan's militarism and imperial expansion before and during World War II. However, after Japan's defeat, Ono is forced to confront the consequences of his art being used to serve a nationalist cause that ultimately led the nation down a disastrous path. The novel depicts Japan's struggle to recover and redefine its identity in the aftermath of the war, moving away from the militant nationalism it had previously embraced. Ono represents the older generation that remained nostalgic for the pre-war years when their patriotic ideals seemed honorable, but must now grapple with feelings of shame, regret and cognitive dissonance after those ideals were thoroughly discredited by Japan's actions and losses during the war.
Identity:
As an artist, Ono's personal identity was profoundly shaped by his professional role as a creator of nationalistic propaganda art that glorified Japanese imperial ambitions. With Japan's defeat invalidating the principles his artwork promoted, Ono experiences an identity crisis and psychological trauma. He engages in acts of selective memory, self-deception and revisionism as coping mechanisms to preserve a sense of dignity and excuse his past zealous patriotism that now appears misguided. Ono's struggles represent the challenges faced by individuals to reconstruct their sense of self and purpose when the greater societal values and nationalist ideologies that guided their actions have collapsed. His relationships with his progressive daughters and westernized grandson highlight generational divides over how Japanese identity should be perceived and redefined in the post-war era.
So we can say that, through Ono's turbulent personal journey, the novel serves as an exploration of the national crisis of identity Japan faced after its defeat, as the nation was forced to reckon with the consequences of its past militant nationalism. It also delves into the individual existential questions of how one redefines their sense of self, values and purpose when the founding cultural and nationalist narratives that shaped their worldview have been dismantled. (Varde)
The Shifting National Identity
Japan's defeat in World War II ushered in a tumultuous period where the nation was forced to rapidly transform its identity from an imperial military power to a demilitarized democracy under American occupation. Traditional values and ideologies that had fueled ultranationalism and militarism were suddenly displaced by imposed liberal democratic principles. This created great upheaval, as Japanese society grappled with redefining itself after the loss of sovereignty and the crumbling of its former nationalist ethos. Ono's narration captures the tensions of this unique moment, where old and new value systems collided, reflecting the faltering but still residual grip of pre-war ideals amidst the transition to a more Westernized global outlook.
Generational Conflicts of Identity
The radical shift in Japan's national identity bred an intense generational divide. Ono represents the older cohort still psychologically bound to the fading imperialist mindset, while his daughters Setsuko and Noriko embody the younger generation embracing reformist values and American cultural influences like Hollywood heroes. This rift symbolizes how national identity manifests differentially across generations during times of drastic transition. Ono struggles to relate to his grandson's fascination with Western pop culture icons, highlighting the growing cultural disconnect. The generational gap underscores how quickly national identity can bifurcate when an established order is upended.
The Burdens of Individual Culpability
As a former propagandist artist who produced nationalistic art to bolster the imperialist war effort, Ono personifies the conflicts of individual accountability amidst changing tides of ideology. His unreliable narration reveals how memory can be manipulated through self-deception, as he grapples with burying the shame of his complicity in now-discredited actions. Ono's artistic identity, once a source of pride, becomes dissonant and burdensome. The novel intimately depicts one man's fraught renegotiation of identity when past national allegiances become morally compromised. Ono's personal journey dramatizes the human struggles of redefining one's values and absolving guilt during turbulent socio-political shifts.
Nostalgia and the Flux of Identities
While deeply nostalgic for Japan's past cultural traditions, Ono comes to recognize the inevitability of change and flux in national and individual identities. His wistful musings on the former "floating world" pleasure districts give way to an openness towards the younger generation's "optimism and enthusiasm" - a symbolic passing of old to new. The novel's poignant ending, with Ono observing a new city center emerging, suggests identities are impermanent constructs in perpetual states of redefinition across nations and people. As societies transform, individuals must adapt their self-conceptions, however reluctantly. Identities are revealed as constantly "floating" cultural narratives remade by the shifting tides of history. (Tellini)
Unreliable Narrator/Selective Memory:
Ono is an unreliable narrator who selectively avoids or misrepresents certain memories. This narrative technique reflects his struggle to reconcile his past actions and role in promoting militarism with his current self-identity after the war. By obscuring unpleasant truths and glorifying his past achievements, Ono attempts to maintain a virtuous self-image despite the moral transgressions of his propagandist art during the war. His faulty recollections reveal the cracks in his identity as he grapples with guilt, regret, and the desire for self-justification.
Post-War Japan:
The novel presents an imaginary, quasi-fictional depiction of post-war Japan rather than adhering strictly to historical realism. Key Japanese symbols, place names, and cultural artifacts are used to evoke a sense of "Japaneseness" that resonates with collective memory. However, the vagueness of the geographical descriptions suggests Ishiguro is more interested in exploring universal themes of identity crisis through this fictional landscape. Post-war Japan becomes a symbolic setting for confronting the upheaval and reversal of old certainties after a traumatic national defeat.
American Cultural Influence:
The rising influence of American culture, represented by Ichiro's admiration for cowboy heroes over samurai ideals, symbolizes the subversion and erosion of traditional Japanese identity by dominant Western values in the post-war era. Ono is dismayed by this shift, which reflects the generational divide and Japan's reduced global status. The pervasiveness of the American Dream challenges long-held nationalist narratives about Japanese exceptionalism. Kazuo Ishiguro, affected by the hippie movement's individualism in his youth, may also be reflecting the impact of American counterculture on notions of universality and personal identity. ( He)
Characterization of Masuji Ono:
Masuji Ono, the narrator, was once a renowned artist who championed Japanese imperialism through his artwork. However, post-WWII, he grapples with his past beliefs in the face of Japan's defeat and subsequent democratization under U.S. occupation. His narration serves as a quest for personal redemption amidst shifting ideological landscapes, yet it is marked by self-deception and evasion regarding his past actions.
Selective Memory and Identity Construction:
The novel delves into how nations and individuals shape their identities through selective remembrance and forgetting. Ono engages in this process, downplaying his previous fervent nationalism. His justifications expose the manipulation of historical truths to fit national narratives, highlighting the fictional nature of identity built on deliberate forgetfulness.
Complication of Japan's Transition:
Ishiguro complicates the narrative of Japan's transition to democracy by suggesting its continued entanglement with American imperialism during the Korean War. This challenges any simplistic redemption arc, raising doubts about Japan's true departure from its imperial past versus its absorption into a new imperial system.
Resistance to Closure:
The novel refrains from offering easy consolation or closure regarding Japan's past. Instead, it exposes the silences and omissions inherent in historical narratives, emphasizing the reliance on necessary fictions to maintain national identity, which often conceal ongoing injustices and violence.
Unstable Identity and Ongoing Negotiation:
Ultimately, the novel portrays individual and national identity as fluid and constantly revised constructs. There is no fixed authenticity or national redemption; rather, it's an ongoing process of reconciling the present with the burdensome past. One may disavow complicity in historical injustices, but complete transcendence remains elusive. (WRIGHT)
References:
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Kazuo Ishiguro". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Apr. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kazuo Ishiguro. Accessed 26 April 2024.
He, Jingxi. “A Long Anxiety Dream: The Absence and Subversion of Identity in Kazuo Ishiguro's an Artist of the Floating World.” Darcy & Roy Press, Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 2023, https://drpress.org/ojs/index.php/EHSS/article/view/8214/7989. Accessed 26 April 2024.
McCrum, Robert, and Khaled Hosseini. “The 100 best novels: No 94 – An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (1986).” The Guardian, 6 July 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/06/100-best-novels-no-94-an-artist-of-the-floating-world-kazuo-ishiguro-mazuji-ono-noriko. Accessed 26 April 2024.
Varde, Hirenkumar Balavatbhai. “AN ARTIST OF THE FLOATING WORLD (1986 | Allresearch Journal.” Academia.edu, cholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2018, https://www.academia.edu/91403678/AN_ARTIST_OF_THE_FLOATING_WORLD_1986. Accessed 26 April 2024.
WRIGHT, TIMOTHY. “No Homelike Place: The Lesson of History in Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘An Artist of the Floating World.’” Contemporary Literature, vol. 55, no. 1, 2014, pp. 58–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43297947. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.
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