A Study Of The Dual Narrative Progression In The Remains Of The Day And An Artist Of The Floating World

Kazuo Ishiguro(1954-)is a contemporary Japanese-British writer.With dual cultural background,he has a complex creative tendency when dealing with different audiences.In The Remains of the Day(1989)and An Artist of the Floating World(1986),he combines the obscure features of Japanese literature with the English writing background,and adopts the narrative technique of memory to show the ambivalence of the protagonists when facing the past and the future,exploring the profound philosophical issue of self-reconciliation.This thesis adopts Shen Dan’s dual narrative progression theory to investigate how the overt and covert progression interact in the processes of self-reconciliation of protagonists,so as to decipher Ishiguro’s understanding of self-reconciliation.It finds that the reason for Ishiguro’s dual narrative method comes from his rootless complex.He embodies his process of traversing through two cultures and finally reconciling with himself and loneliness in the protagonists.In both novels,whether it is passive reconciliation limited to historical background and personal perception in covert progression,or active reconciliation that dares to face up to faults in covert progression,through the interaction,they all show the process of self-reconciliation when facing the trauma of the past during the change of times and society,goes from escaping,recognizing to enhancing himself.This thesis uses the dual narrative progression theory,which can better explain the complex narrative skills,text contradictions and semantic meaning,help to have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of Ishiguro’s thinking on self-reconciliation,and concern on the survival of ordinary people under the historical circumstances.This thesis provides new theoretical perspective for Ishiguro’s novels,finds a more thorough theme of self-reconciliation,and can help readers better understand the significance of the works.