Writing "World Literature":A Study Of Kazuo Ishiguro's Novels

Japanese-English novelist Kazuo Ishiguro has written seven novels,one short story collection,and several short stories since the 1980s.Many works have been on the best-seller list and won him various literary awards,including the Booker Prize in 1989 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017.Relying on his success in the literary market and literary evaluation system,Ishiguro practiced his idea of 'international writing' and became a 'world literature' writer.Currently,his works have been translated into more than 40 languages and have a wide readership worldwide.Putting Ishiguro's 'international writing' in the context of 'world literature' for research,we find that his works,which are contemporary classics of world literature,have the characteristics of'internationalization' and 'universalization' in theme,style,and acceptance.On this basis,we summarize Ishiguro's literary practice as writing 'world literature',and discusses it from three aspects:'universal theme','cosmopolitan style' and 'reading Ishiguro'.Ishiguro's writing includes two stages of'internationalization' and 'universalization',and the key to the success of his works is to achieve a balance between locality and cosmopolitanity,seriousness and popularity.Analyzing Ishiguro's works from the transformation of world literature,we clarify its position in this trend,and point out its connection with post-colonialism,transnationalism,cosmopolitanism,etc.This article includes four chapters,which discuss the writing of Ishiguro from the theoretical and practical aspects.The first chapter discusses the development of Ishiguro's writing from 'international writing'to writing 'world literature',outlines the two stages of his writing process,internationalization and universalization,and shows its specific performance in this process.Then,we analyze Ishiguro's writing philosophy and practice from the theories of 'international writing','cosmopolitan literature' and 'world literature'.The first section analyzes Ishiguro's 'international writing' theory,and points out that as an immigrant writer,he and his works have the characteristics of being 'born internationally'.The second section starts from the concept of 'writing for the Norwegians',analyzes how he realized the idea of 'international writing' in texts,and explains the connection between Ishiguro's works and 'cosmopolitan literature' from the perspective of 'diaspora writing'.The third section uses 'universal perspective','global sense' and 'balance' as keywords to demonstrate the relationship between his works and 'world literature'.In the subsequent chapters,we carry out a detailed analysis of Ishiguro's works from the perspectives of theme and style.The second chapter discusses the 'universal theme',and points out that the theme of Ishiguro's works has undergone development from local to global.The first section outlines the evolution of theme and describes how it evolved from showing Japaneseness to exploring human commonalities.The second section takes the philosophy of existentialism as the main line,examines the theme from the perspective of 'floating world' and 'being',and conducts analysis.First,from the three levels of 'world','life' and 'art',it is pointed out that the tragic character of the protagonists in his works stems from the uncertainty of the 'floating world',and the underlying code of this 'floating world' is modernity.Then from the perspective of 'the possibles of being' and'mirrored characters',we focus on analyzing the theme of 'another "me"',pointing out that Ishiguro's writing originates from the imagination of 'self both in content and form.Moreover,it is related to the personal experience of the author.The next chapter analyzes Ishiguro's cosmopolitan style,and summarizes it into three dimensions:the 'multidimensional symbolic system',the 'strategy of empathy' and the'experiment of style',and points out that the root cause of its generation and development is 'world reader'.The first section proposes the concept of 'multidimensional symbol system'.By analyzing the symbols and metaphors in the text,the theme is further explored,and the allegorical tendency of Ishiguro's writing is revealed.The second section examines empathy strategies,and discusses them from three aspects:'unreliable narrators','echoes',and 'leaving gaps'.It explains how these works achieve empathy effects,and interprets the lyrical nature of Ishiguro's works.The third section discusses parody and intertextuality,and points Ishiguro's literary exploration and breakthroughs.In his writing,the goal of popularization was achieved through parody of popular genres,while intertextuality constructed a composite universe.The last chapter examines Ishiguro's writing from a macro perspective,the transformation of world literature,and points out that his theory and practice are part of the tide of contemporary world literature transformation.The first section describes two major trends in the transformation,the 'post-colonial literature' and the 'cosmopolitan literature'.The former emphasizes locality and the latter emphasizes cosmopolitanity.The second section analyzes the position of Ishiguro's writing in the tide of transformation and its manifestations,and points out its connection with'(post-)colonial literature' and 'cosmopolitan literature'.