Anxiety And Resistance

Kazuo Ishiguro,a Japanese-British writer who won the Nobel Prize in literature in2017,plays a significant role in the contemporary English literary world.Due to his Japanese-British cultural background,Ishiguro focuses on “international writing” which reflects his musings on the universal state of human existence and human mental state.The Unconsoled is the fourth novel of Kazuo Ishiguro.Thanks to its Kafkaesque writing style and obvious surrealist color,many critics acclaim the novel as the most special one among Ishiguro’s fiction.The story is set in an unknown small city in Central Europe where the protagonist Ryder,who is a well-known pianist,is invited to give a performance to save the cultural crisis that has plagued the local people for a long time.Up to now,overseas and domestic studies mainly focus on the dream quality,traumatic theme,alienation,survival predicament and etc.,but the anxiety issue in this novel has not been intensively studied so far.The thesis interprets from the perspective of Horneyan neo-psychoanalysis the manifestations and causes of Ryder’s anxiety,as well as his defensive strategies as resistance against anxiety,through which the readers may catch a glimpse of the spiritual predicaments commonly faced by humanity and their struggle and choice in modern society since the latter half of the twentieth century.The Introduction part provides the brief information of Kazuo Ishiguro and The Unconsoled,summarizes the literature review both at home and abroad,lists the important theoretical points of Horney’s neo-psychoanalysis,and illustrates the significance and structure of the whole thesis.Chapter One discusses the manifestations of Ryder’s anxiety which mainly involves basic anxiety and neurotic anxiety,respectively representing the origin of his anxiety in childhood and its later development.The neurotic anxiety in his adulthood consists of emotional anxiety,status anxiety and existential anxiety,and from these three aspects this chapter analyzes the anxiety predicament the protagonist is trapped in.Chapter Two demonstrates the causes of Ryder’s anxiety.According to Horney’s neo-psychoanalysis,the formation of individuals’ anxiety is embedded in their growing environment,especially their family environment,as well as socio-cultural environment.First of all,as personal experience is the direct cause of one’s anxiety,Ryder’s basic anxiety emerges from the tense relationship in his original family,and the disharmony in his married life aggravates his situation;besides,since social and cultural factors are the root causes of anxiety,it is difficult for Ryder to alleviate his distress in the alienated socio-cultural environment;in addition,under the influence of external factors,Ryder’s inner world is inevitably harassed by psychological conflicts,which in turn functions as a vital cause for his anxiety.Chapter Three explores the strategies Ryders adopts to overcome his anxiety.Horney believes that neurotic people may ease their anxiety through both interpersonal and intrapsychic strategies.Ryder employs these two kinds of strategies simultaneously.In terms of interpersonal strategies,he moves toward,against and away from people;and as regards intrapsychic strategies,he seeks help from such means as idealization,externalization and rationalization to fight against his psychological disturbances.However,Ryder does not realize that these inappropriate strategies only worsen his anxiety.Therefore,no matter how hard he struggles,he cannot achieve inner peace in its true sense.The open ending of the novel remains quite controversial.Some people think that Ryder embarks again on the journey of self-pursuit with hope,while others argue that his future will still be a difficult one.According to Horney’s theory,however,Ryder fails to recognize the causes of his problems,so he still can’t free himself from the constraints of anxiety.Notwithstanding,it doesn’t necessarily follow that he will never walk out of his dilemma.Horney believes that it will be an effective cure to save a neurotic from his inner anxiety if he can courageously face up to his real self and establish a healthy and harmonious interpersonal relationship.To sum up,based on the analysis of Ryder’s anxiety predicament in The Unconsoled,this thesis helps readers to better experience Ishiguro’s humanism prevalent in his fiction,and to come to realize his deep exposure and fierce criticism of alienation in family and social culture in modern age.Moreover,this thesis is intended to inspire people to actively fight against the spiritual predicaments they encounter in their life,and it is only by knowing about themselves and understanding others that they can create a harmonious inner world.