An Analysis Of Protagonist’s Self-alienation In An Artist Of The Floating World From Gaze Theory

Japanese-British writer Ishiguro Kazuo,known as the “international writer of world novels”,is an outstanding contemporary western novelist.And his works have won many literary awards including the Booker Prize and are well received by readers.The background of An Artist of the Floating World was set before and after World War II.In the novel,the representative protagonist Masuji Ono was portrayed.Due to his thirst for fame,he gradually grew into a painter who raised the flag for Japanese militarism.However,after Japan’s defeat,the accusations of people around him,the arguments of his families,and the society’s attitude toward war criminals made Ono the object of the gaze,and he was treated with hostility,indifference,and isolation,Ono,who was gazed by his father,teachers,society and self-desire,gradually became self-alienated.So he began to escape from reality,indulging in the glory of the past,unable to extricate himself.Finally,at the miai of his youngest daughter,Ono publicly admitted his mistake and began to examine his past.Since its publication,the novel has attracted many scholars at home and abroad,and the current research focuses on the themes of trauma,attitudes toward war,patterns of power and space,postmodernism,unreliable narratives,social identity theory,etc.,however,there are few types of research on the analysis of the novel from gaze theory.Therefore,based on close reading of the text,combined with the gaze theories of Sartre,Lacan,and Foucault,this thesis analyzes how the painter Ono go to self-alienation under the gaze of his father,teachers,society and self-desire,what his self-alienation behaviors are,and how Ono reconstructs his identity.And the thesis is divided into six parts.Chapter one is a brief introduction,containing research background,research purpose,research significance and thesis structure.The second chapter introduces Ishiguro Kazuo’s life and novel creation,as well as the domestic and foreign research status of An Artist of the Floating World and gaze theory.Chapter three uses the gaze theory to analyze how the protagonist Ono in the novel is gazed by his father,teachers,society and self-desire.Chapter four interprets Ono’s self-alienation as the gazed person.Chapter five focuses on how Ono achieves self-salvation and identity reconstruction.The last part summarizes the research findings,future research ideas of An Artist of the Floating World and the research limitations of this thesis,and suggestions for further research.The study of gaze theory has important research value and practical significance.Today’s society is full of gazes and everyone can be a gazer and the gazed.How to avoid self-alienation caused by catering to the standards of the gazer and violating the will of oneself under the gaze of the other and authority,how to face and use gaze rationally,positive self-examination to construct one’s discourse and identity is worthy of everyone’s consideration.