Collective Memory In The Traumatic Narrative Of A Pale View Of Hills And A Family Supper

Throughout Kazuo Ishiguro’s work,both novels and short stories deal with themes of trauma and memory.Every protagonist who tries to recall the past is saddled with trauma.Ishiguro has documented trauma and memory in many forms of fiction.A Pale View of Hills and A Family Supper are two of Kazuo Ishiguro’s classic works regarding traumatic narrative and memory writing.Based on Judith Herman’s theory of trauma and Maurice Halbwachs’ memory theory,the research utilizes a combination of close reading and theoretical exposition.It explores the details and the collective recognition behind trauma narrative and collective memory.Firstly,the thesis focuses on the war as the root of the characters’ traumatic experiences.Secondly,it analyzes whether the traumatized subjects have successfully realized self-healing of trauma as a result of their disparate personalities and identities.Finally,it concentrates on the trauma narrative evoking collective memory and constructing collective identity through the collective awakening of trauma.The thesis concludes that A Pale View of Hills and A Family Supper construct the collective traumatic memories of Japan after World War II through the traumatic experiences of ordinary characters.Influenced by the newly constructed collective memories,the characters are troubled by memory and identity.Ishiguro victimizes Japan from space to psychology,from women to children to men.The trauma narrative turns Japan’s collective memory into its national memory,but the trauma of the countries and people invaded by Japan in World War II is deliberately concealed in this context.