An Elegy Of Englishness: On Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains Of The Day

Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning novel, The Remains of the Day (1988), is an intricately crafted and hauntingly evocative work. The protagonist's six-day brief physical leisure trip corresponds with the psychic journey of the discovery of the myth and elegy of Englishness. By unremittingly evoking the romantic mood of the country house in the nostalgia memory of the protagonist, the author not only examines the national tradition of Englishness which is commonly imagined as better than the present but also exposes the disillusionment of the myth of transcendental Englishness which is always hovering in the protagonist's mind. Ishiguro tries to transfer the particular setting of the English countryside into metaphor and parable, and then destabilize the very memory of it as well as its nostalgia associations. In the hard-won discovering and nostalgia journey, the integrations of personal memory and national imagination, the genuine places and metaphorical settings, and the country house and the landscape all contribute to the process of discovery, rethinking and understanding, and finally come to grieve over the loss of Englishness.This paper is divided into five chapters and one conclusion, each of which deals with one particular aspect. The first chapter focuses on the author as an immigrant and the influence upon his works. Then a comprehensive discussion on his writing is presented. The Kazuo Ishiguro study at home and abroad in the end of this part is made for the service of the exploitation of the theme. The second chapter proceeds to discuss the country house, Englishness, and their relationship in the English tradition of literature and culture. The third chapter elaborates on the presentation of Englishness as a phantom in the novel and the protagonist's gradual exposure and rethinking on the essence of Englishness through personal memory and the country house in everyday life. The fourth chapter stresses the motivation of the jewel image and the crisis and break-up of Englishness on the basis of pastoral moment in the country house. The fifth chapter, materialized from the protagonist's journey, analyzes the demystification of the national landscape signifying Englishness in the protagonist's psychological journey and its contribution to the make-up of an elegy of Englishness. The conclusion reemphasizes the theme of this paper, points out certain significance of the study, and prefaces some new orientations on the subject.