Reconstruction,Alienation And Reconstruction:

Kazuo Ishiguro(1954-)a Japanese-born British novelist and 2017 Nobel Prize winner,is well-known for his subtle and delicate lyrical writing skill.He,together with Salman Rushdie and V.S Naipaul,is praised as one of the most prominent immigrant writers in English literature.A Pale View of Hills is Kazuo Ishiguro’s first work which awarded him the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize.It tells a story about the retreat and loss of Etsuko and her daughter.They always retreat from their plight but keep losing themselves.For a long time,A Pale View of Hills receives less critical attention than his other works,and most current comments are made from the perspectives of trauma,narrative and identity.The most striking features are the narrative technique,and the narrate latitude converting time to space,which embrace the protagonists’entire activities.With the unfolding of the transformation of spaces,the protagonist’s mental torment is perceived.This thesis focuses on physical space,social space,and psychological space in A Pale View of Hills to analyze how spaces affect the mother’s behavior,value,and psychology respectively and how she struggles to find her own space by applying the spatial theory of Henri Lefebvre.The introduction briefly provides the information of Kazuo Ishiguro and his first work A Pale View of Hills.Then previous researches on Ishiguro’s works at home and abroad are reviewed.The spatial theory is also introduced in this part.The main body of this thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One interpreters the metaphorical meaning embodied in the physical space to reveal the survival dilemma Etsuko is confronted with.The physical spaces in A Pale View of Hills include tortured and devastated Nagasaki,peaceful and tranquil English countryside,and Etsuko’s drifting homes.The spaces refract the trauma and resuscitation,hope and vulnerability and reticence and revolt,which unravels the oppression Etsuko experiences in the physical space,and prophesies her destiny.Chapter Two focuses on Etsuko’s plight and dilemma caused by the domination and control in the social space.Social space refracts a complex construction of social relationship.The roots that cause Etsuko’s oppression and existential dilemma are the decline of the traditional values,sex discrimination and racism.These unequal relationships bring negative impact on Etsuko physically and psychologically,and suggest her self-redemption in the psychological space.Chapter Three is an interpretation of Etsuko’s struggle for self-remodeling and self-redemption in psychological space.The repression in the physical space and alienation in the social space imprison Etsuko in a confined space and quell her pursuit of love and freedom.Etsuko mobilizes herself to break the limitation of the space that she immigrates and reconstitutes family,which reflects her awakening spatial awareness.But the miserable immigration experiences lead her daughter to commit suicide,which plunges Etsuko into miserable dross of reality.Etsuko casts up the mirage with lies to cover her sense of guilty.With the encouragement of Etsuko’s youngest daughter,Niki,Etsuko finally breaks through the unreal world and reconciles with her past to regain love and freedom.Her escape,concealment,decomposition and awakening,revolt as well,give a vivid interpretation of the human existence,which proves that the only way to gain self-identity is to acknowledge her past and revolt against the reality.Through the interpretation of multiplicity of spaces in A Pale View of Hills,this thesis aims to analyze the impact of spaces on individual experiences and self-identification.The shaping spaces which bring development in the episodic and fragmentary story reveal apparent reality as a fictional construction,witness the survivors’ dilemma and reflect the living environments of immigrants and their cultural situations as the heterogeneous groups after World War Ⅱ.The narrative of memories in the novel is a projection to sadness involving the author’s own personal experiences.The author’s spatial narrative not only reveals the causal relationship between space and identity,but also conveys a deep and genuine concern for the people who have been exposed to traumas over the course of their lives.