A Study Of Narrative Strategies In The Remains Of The Day From The Perspective Of Rhetoric Narratology

As one of Ishiguro’s most prestigious novels, The Remains of the Day tells thestory of an English butler named Stevens confronting disillusionment as he recalls hislife devoted to serving Lord Darlington but gradually finds his true inner self indislocation and determines to cherish the “remains of the day”.Until now the novel has been studied from many perspectives, such aspost-colonial reading, psychoanalytical exploration and new historical analysis. As forthe thematic study of the novel, critics have dealt with the theme of trauma, nostalgia,loss of identity and so on. There are also some critics analyzing Stevens as anunreliable narrator, but up to now no one has studied the novel systematically from theperspective of rhetoric narratology. Thus based on the current studies on The Remainsof the Day at home and abroad, the author of this thesis tries to explore The Remains ofthe Day through the perspective of rhetoric narratology, based on W. C. Booth’srhetoric theory, analyzing the narrative strategies Ishiguro adopts to communicate withthe reader through manipulation of the narrator. The narrative strategies Ishiguro usesinclude unreliable narration and the irony from the implied author, which implicitlyreveal the narrator Stevens’ disillusioned ideal of being a great butler. In this process itcalls for the reader’s relatively objective attitude to infer the implied author’s positionthrough Stevens’ narration. Meanwhile, through skillful control of distance of theimplied author and the reader from the narrator from far to near, Ishiguro arouses thereader’s sympathy for Stevens. Thus a glimmer of hope out of disillusionment ofStevens’ ideal at the end of the novel enables the tacit “collusion” between the readerand the implied author.