A Comparative Study Of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Novels And Adaptations From The Perspective Of Narratology

This paper takes Kazuo Ishiguro’s three novels(" The Remains of the Day ","Never Let Me Go","An Artist of the Floating World")and the films adapted by him as the research object.With the help of the narratology theory of literature and film,this paper analyzes the narrative differences between novels and adapted films.The analysis of narrative differences is mainly carried out from the three aspects of narrative plot,narrative discourse and narrative time and space.By analyzing the differences between the original novel and the adapted film,this paper discusses how the film,as a visual art,deals with the narrative mode in Kazuo Ishiguro’s original novel and turns it into a movie.In addition,the study of narrative adaptation will also help us to better understand and grasp the text of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.This paper is divided into four parts.The introduction will first sort out the basic types of literary narratology,the development stages of literature and film narratology,as well as the connection between film and novel,which will provide theoretical basis for the subsequent close reading and analysis of the text.Secondly,the introduction will sort out the existing film adaptations of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels and summarize the research status.Based on the above content,the research direction and focus of this paper are proposed.The first chapter uses the method of close reading of the text to analyze the narrative differences between the original novel and the adapted film in detail.The research of this chapter mainly focuses on the narrative content and focuses on the differences between the three novels and the adapted film on the story level.This difference has nothing to do with narrative form and narrative discourse,but more to do with the choice of narrative content by different media.Moreover,this difference in story plot will also have a certain impact on character image and theme.The second chapter mainly discusses the differences of narrators and narrative perspectives between novels and films.In terms of narrators,the film changes the writing mode of the original novel which uses only the narrator,and changes it into the mechanical multiple narrators.The multiple narrators of the film can be mainly divided into two types: picture narrators and sound narrators.In terms of narrative perspective,the novel adopts the double-layer narrative perspective of the protagonist,while the film also expands the limited perspective of the original novel and improves some important plots by adding supplementary perspectives.The third chapter focuses on and analyzes the different characteristics of narrative time and space between the novel and the film.The narrative time of the novel is very strong,and the key to highlight the time is to intersperse memories in the flashback.The film,however,strengthens the sense of space in the narrative by means of montage editing,which plays a key role in creating the overall narrative atmosphere.