A Study Of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Works From The Perspective Of Bildungsroman

In the works of Kazuo Ishiguro,a Japanese-born British novelist,memory,time and self-deception are the constant themes,which are also the hot topics of academic attention at home and abroad.However,Kazuo Ishiguro’s writing is not only limited to the above three aspects,Bildung is also an important issue that he has repeatedly discussed in his writing career of more than 40 years,which has rich aesthetic significance and interpretation value.Based on his own growth of cross-cultural experience in the "floating world",Kazuo Ishiguro focuses on the growth of marginalized individuals and special groups in his novels,shows their loss of growth and consoles them.At the same time,Kazuo Ishiguro reflects on history,intergenerational relationship,humanistic education and many other problems.This paper focuses on Bildung,which rarely gets attention in the academic circles,and takes three novels,An Artist of the Floating World,When We Were Orphans and Never Let Me Go as examples to analyze and discuss.Considering the richness of Ishiguro’s works,this paper intends to make an in-depth discussion from three dimensions,individual and age,individual and others,individual and self,from the perspective of related theories of "Bildungsroman".This paper is divided into the following five parts:The introduction part first introduces the domestic and foreign researches on Kazuo Ishiguro and his works,then briefly present the origin and development of the Bildungsroman,and finally introduces the significance of the topic,research ideas and innovations of the paper.The first chapter focuses on the relationship between individual growth and the development of history in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels.Classic "Bildungsroman" theory takes the Hegelian view of history as the core to establish a set of metaphorical narrative rules that simulates the process of "modernity" with individual "youth".On one hand,Ishiguro continues the classic narrative rules by putting protagonists in turning periods of history to show their growth statuses,on the other hand,he replaces the linear and developmental view of history with the "floating world",and presents the fracture of the organic relationship between individual and history by deconstructing the protagonists’ senses of mission to response to the history.The second chapter focuses on the relationship between individual growth and others in the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro.Based on the theory of Yuping Rui,the author makes an in-depth discussion on the images of "guide”and "peer" in the three novels.First,Kazuo Ishiguro creates different "guide" images,showing their dual influences on the growth of the protagonists;Second,around the protagonists,Kazuo Ishiguro presents the intergenerational conflicts and the collective growth of marginalized groups,which enriches the expression of "peer".The third chapter focuses on the relationship between individual growth and self in Ishiguro’s novels,and discusses the implication of Ishiguro’s "bubble".First,individuals in the "bubble" are isolated from the real world,showing a private way of growth;Second,with the elapse of "youth",individual growth ended in disillusionment like the "bubble".For the loss of individual growth,Kazuo Ishiguro also provides spiritual consolation,and thus further asks the meaning of individual growth.The epilogue summarizes and discusses the significance of Kazuo Ishiguro’s writing on the basis of the foregoing.The concept of Bildung in Goethe’s era presupposes a growth mode guided by reason,which takes "human" as the premise,and expresses the shaping ideal from the individual,the nation to the whole human beings.In his three works,Kazuo Ishiguro re-examines the meaning of Bildung by describing the failure of the personal growth and the socialization of the protagonists.