Research On "Self" In Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels

Japanese-British writer Kazuo Ishiguro(1954-)is a well-known contemporary writer.His debut novel,A Light Shadow in the Far Mountains,was awarded the Winifred Holby Prize by the Royal Society,followed by the Blake Prize for Literature.,Nobel Prize in Literature and many other international awards,which have a wide impact in the literary world.He was influenced by the cultures of Britain and Japan since he was a child.In his creation,he did not limit his attention to one place.His works spanned a wide range from subject matter to content,covering a wide range of themes,but his work style was relatively stable.Experience can often bring a sense of unity to readers,because his works always revolve around a theme,that is,the search for the protagonist’s "self".In his creation,Kazuo Ishiguro focuses his attention on some marginal characters who are out of the mainstream ideology,placing them in the situation of facing himself,in the scattered memories and fragments of life,the end of the event always points to the characters themselves.Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s life experience and his creative thoughts,this thesis uses the method of close reading of the text,starting from psychology,philosophy,psychoanalysis and narrative methods,to sort out Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels,explore the protagonists in depth,and analyze the works.How the different characters in "Self" explore.The thesis consists of three parts: introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction part mainly introduces Kazuo Ishiguro’s own life experience and its influence on the author’s writing;as well as the research status of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels and the significance of researching his works and related topics.The main text consists of three chapters: the first chapter explores the self-identity of the protagonist in the novel from the perspective of psychology,analyzes the self-identity crisis encountered by the protagonist in the social and historical process in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels,and explores how the characters in the novel encounter self-identity.The struggle after the identity crisis and the protagonist’s process of reconstructing himself beyond his own limitations.The second chapter combines classic narratology theories to analyze how Kazuo Ishiguro uses narrative mechanisms such as unreliability and memory to show the self-deceiving deception constructed by the protagonist due to inner entanglement and pain.The narrators use a series of strategies to obtain positive Self-identification,trying to use self-deception to escape reality to heal the trauma and balance his inner world,Kazuo Ishiguro uses his unique narrative method to gradual y analyze the truth of things in his novels,showing readers the true self that the protagonist tries to cover up.The third chapter explores the self and the other in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels with the help of Lacan’s "principle of mirroring".In his works,the individual is often influenced by the "other" and gets lost in the wrong construction of the "other" Identity,lose the identity of the self,and thus fall into the quagmire of self-lost,at the same time,the individual is also able to pursue the true self with the help and inspiration of others.Through literature,Kazuo Ishiguro shows the spiritual predicament faced by modern individuals.He has deep sympathy for human beings and tries to explore various paths for us to construct ourselves.