The Social Reality In The Remains Of The Dav-A Critical Discourse Study

Kazuo Ishiguro, a prestigious contemporary English writers of Japanese origin, has published seven novels since 1982 and it is commonly believed that The Remains of the Day (1989) is his masterpiece, which narrates an English butler, Stevens, proceeding a six-day journey in the English countryside interwoven with his personal reminiscence.During the trip, Stevens makes every effort to justify his profession and past behaviors. However, the ideas are hardly supported by the fact that in no way will he achieve the goal of reestablishing the old glory. The social reality forces him to abandon the proud sense of being a top-notch butler. It is precisely for this reason that Stevens sets off to introspect the significant events, the abnormal relationships and the particular conversations that take place in Darlington Hall, a solemn and mysterious typical English house owned by Lord Darlington.This thesis is intended to render a full analysis of The Remains of the Day from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. By applying Fairclough’s Three-dimensional Framework, the discourse in the novel will be analyzed from the levels of text, discourse practice and social practice. According to Fairclough, discourse as text refers to the vocabulary and grammar; discourse practice contains the production and circulation of text; social practice means the impact of text to society. Thus the analysis of discourse is actually the reveal of social reality.In order to have a thorough understanding of the novel, the first Chapter introduces the basic information about Kazuo Ishiguro and summarizes the literature review of The Remains of the Day. Then the second Chapter gives an account of the theoretical framework, which Fairclough’s Three-dimensional Framework is stressed in particular. When it comes to Critical Discourse Analysis, social analysis cannot be ignored, thus the third Chapter analyzes the historical background and social institution. What calls for special attention is that the fourth Chapter is an integration of the discourse with the relevant social meanings. Therefore, the semiotic analysis, conversational analysis, syntactic analysis and narrative analysis express all beyond their textual meanings. From what has been discussed above, we may draw a conclusion that social reality in The Remains of the Day can be indicated from the discourse divided in different levels by using Critical Discourse Analysis.