A Spatial Narrative Study Of Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist Of The Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro,the Noble Prize Winner for Literature in 2017,is one of the most celebrated contemporary Japanese for British novelists.An Artist of the Floating World,his second novel,helped him to be nominated for the Booker Prize in 1986.Consisting of four diaries of Masuji Ono’s memories,the novel depicts the mental journey of Ono across America’s occupation of Japan after the Second World War.Due to Ishiguro’s immigrant identity and the novel’s historical background of the Second World War,the academic circles have studied this novel from the perspectives of identity anxiety,trauma theory and narratology,in particular unreliable narration.Different from previous studies,the writer of this thesis finds that it is of great significance to study the novel from the perspective of spatial narrative,as the novel indeed is a spatial narrative itself.This thesis,in light of Lefebvre’s space theory,attempts to explore the space elements and the impact of space upon its narrative process.Based on textual and reference studies,this thesis analyzes the novel by connecting the protagonist’s narration with his states in the physical space,social space and psychological space.The thesis concludes that Ono’s change from an escapist to the one who bravely faces his past mistakes is a significant indicator of Ishiguro’s attitude towards history;in his opinion,a mistaken past is not something to fear but rather to face with great courage.This study will certainly promote readers’ understanding of Ishiguro regarding to his representation of history.