The Remains of Empires in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of The Day

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how Kazuo Ishiguro has found a position of enunciation away from the conflicting sentiments of otherness between the deeply rooted traditions of both Japan and England. With a particular focus on Ishiguro’s third novel, The Remains of the Day (1989), the paper highlights the shift of the scene from Japan in his first two novels, A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World to a purely English setting in The Remains of the Day. Drawing on the postcolonial theoretical framework, the study examines Ishiguro’s literary production grapples with universal themes. It offers ways to question the ‘national greatness’ of both empires as represented through Japanese and British voices while narrating their personal histories and traumas. The main contribution of this study lies in extending arguments on the postcolonial engagement of Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, by focusing on his demythologization of both Eastern and Western Empires. The paper concludes that Ishiguro’s ‘fictional’ metamorphosis serves to subvert imperial landscapes, and convert them into mythical metaphors to approach universal themes and worlds, while simultaneously finding his own voice and territory.