A Study Of The Identity And Hybridity Of Stevens In The Remains Of The Day

The Remains of the Day is a novel published in 1989 by Japanese-English writer Kazuo Ishiguro.In the novel,Darlington Hall,where Stevens worked,was once owned by an English political leader,Lord Darlington,during two world wars.After the end of World War II,Darlington Hall was sold to an American-Mr.Farraday.Under the sponsorship of new employer,Stevens began a six-day driving trip.During his travel,Stevens recalled his career experiences in his serving Lord Darlington during two world wars and produced new insights on his life.By employing post-colonialism,this thesis intends to study Stevens,who is the protagonist of the novel The Remains of the Day,from three aspects: identity,the other images,hybridity.His long-time work experiences in Darlington Hall had made Stevens consider himself as an outstanding butler.However,during the six-day car trip,Stevens doubted about something that he had never suspected before in his memory and encountered the identity crisis for the first time.At the end of the story,Stevens suddenly became clear,resolved the identity crisis he faced,re-found the old self and reshaped the new one.In the theory of power and discourse,Foucault once discussed that in the post-colonial era,the colonized was marginalized,became the other,and lost the power and discourse.In the novel,most of the time,Stevens didn't have his own independent thought.“Dignity” made him depress his feelings towards his father and Miss Kenton every hour and moment.“To be an outstanding butler” blinded him and made him turn a blind eye on the wrong behaviors of Lord Darlington.Although Stevens was not from the British colonies,his actions and thoughts were influenced by the colonial culture colonization at all times incessantly.Under this influence,Stevens intentionally or unintentionally imitated the cultural colonizer in the novel,namely his employers.His postcolonial characteristic is reflected in the novel by these two behaviors: one is that during two world wars,he imitated the way Lord Darlington conducted himself,the other is that after the Second World War,he tried to learn the way how Mr.Farraday spoke to deal with the latter's banters.Both of these two mimicry behaviors show the hybridity of Stevens vividly.Stevens' s negation and suspicion about the old self and his puzzle about the future reflected the decline in Britain's international status after the Second World War,which has caused the British people to lose their pre-war cultural superiority and lose the central status of the world,creating a strong psychological gap and inner confusion.At the end of the novel,Stevens rebuilt his faith in his coming life,which,to some extent,showed the confidence and change of British regaining selves at the turn of centuries.