A Study Of Rhetorical Narrative In A Pale View Of Hills By Kazuo Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills,as the debut work of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro,has won worldwide attention upon its publication.Set in post-war Japan,the novel unfolds with the fragmentary memories of the protagonist,Etsuko.Due to her guilt about her daughter’s suicide,Etsuko creates a fictional image of Sachiko when reminiscing about her past in Nagasaki.Etsuko projects her own experiences onto Sachiko,and serves as an epitome of the ordinary person in post-war Japan.Based on James Phelan’s theory of rhetorical narrative,this study explores how Ishiguro attains the purpose of communicating with his readers through the rhetorical narrative techniques.The analysis of multi-dimensional components of characters in Ishiguro’s characterization and the different emotional responses to the narrative from different types of readers are conducive to readers’ perception of the conflicting relationship among characters.In the narrative progression,Ishiguro employs various rhetorical narrative techniques to present how instabilities and tensions work together to promote the narrative progression.Etsuko’s inner conflicts and conflicts with the environment and others constitute the instabilities of the narrative.Besides,the disparities in knowledge,beliefs,and values among the reader,the narrator,and the author constitute tensions.The analysis of the narrative progression in A Pale View of Hills not only helps to explore the relationship among the rhetorical elements within the text,but also emphasizes the reader’s participation in the progression.Narrative judgment runs through the whole narrative progression.Ishiguro guides readers to discuss how the three levels of narrative judgment,including interpretive judgment,ethical judgment and aesthetic judgment,are reflected in the novel.Through narrative judgments,the reader excavates Ishiguro’s intention hidden behind the narrative.Employing Phelan’s theory of rhetorical narrative to analyze A Pale View of Hills makes it possible to explore the narrative strategies used by Ishiguro from a new perspective and achieve expected rhetorical effects.Moreover,it also helps to explore the inner feelings of common people who have experienced disastrous events and draw more attention to the current situation of this group.