A Deconstructive Reading Of Ishiguro’s The Remains Of The Day

This thesis aims to analyze how Ishiguro deconstructs the binary oppositions within the field of western tradition in The Remains of the Day through Derrida’s theory of deconstruction so that the text could be understood as one of the literary works that tends to overturn in a way the hegemonic thoughts of Western Metaphysics. The body part of the thesis falls into three sections. Chapter One discusses how Ishiguro deconstructs the binary opposition between man and woman by revealing the common point between them—they are both confronted with different oppressions. Chapter Two analyzes how Ishiguro deconstructs the binary opposition between West and East by exposing the oppression that the western center imposes on the Jew to show how the western center oppresses other ethnic minority groups. Chapter Three argues that Ishiguro deconstructs the binary opposition between the privileged and the unprivileged by showing their actual overlapping in terms of dressing and speaking manners. The thesis comes to a conclusion that through deconstructing the three binary oppositions, Ishiguro subverts the man—dominant society, the hegemony and the social ranks of the Western metaphysics in The Remains of the Day, dissolving the western center.